Reshma Saujani made an unconventional choice for her new documentary about struggling mothers: she kept it off Netflix and out of film festivals. Instead, mothers themselves are screening No Country for Mothers in community centers, libraries, and rented theaters across the nation.
Brittney Walker organized a screening at a poolhouse in Arizona. Joanna Carolina Berry booked a theater in Atlanta. Stephanie Valdez reserved a library room in Las Vegas. The strategy is deliberate. Saujani, an executive producer and founder of the advocacy organizations Moms First and Girls Who Code, believes mothers need to experience this film together, not alone at 10pm after work and kids are finally asleep.
"Moms will often watch or read something by themselves, then get pissed off in isolation," Saujani said at a screening in Minneapolis in June. "But not this movie."
The documentary focuses on systemic failures to support mothers: the lack of paid leave, inadequate childcare infrastructure, and policies that have stalled for decades. Hillary Clinton appears in the film recounting how Congress passed a childcare bill in the 1970s that President Richard Nixon promptly vetoed. The message is clear: America has long chosen not to support its mothers.
At the Minneapolis screening, Saujani outlined how the country deliberately divides mothers through culture wars. Working mothers versus stay-at-home mothers. Traditional wives versus ambitious career women. The goal, she argued, is to keep mothers distracted and fractured rather than united around shared priorities like paid leave and universal childcare.
"America makes it impossible to be a mom," Saujani told the crowd of mostly women. "By pitting women against each other, we never come together on the policies we actually agree on."
The film shows Saujani directly confronting federal leaders about solutions. When she asked President Trump about childcare funding during an interview, his response fell flat. "They had no fucking clue how to answer that question," she said. Trump has publicly stated that federal childcare support is not feasible, suggesting states should handle the burden themselves.
What makes the documentary unusual is its producer credits. Thousands of mothers who shared their stories or hosted screenings are listed as producers, transforming the project from a top-down film into a collective action document.
"They know that the moment we choose our power over their blame, it's over for them," Saujani said. "This film is gasoline, and we are the match."
The documentary features focus groups of mothers, interviews in their homes about daily struggles, and footage from a Turning Point USA summit. Saujani deliberately sought out audiences where political disagreement might exist, knowing that winning requires building bridges.
Alice Mann, a Democratic Minnesota state senator who authored the state's new paid leave law, participated in a panel discussion following the Minneapolis screening. She described the fight as "absolutely astounding," noting that even some Democrats opposed it and no Republicans voted for it. One male senator told her he believed women of childbearing age should stay home with children, not work.
The mothers hosting screenings across the country see the film as permission to discuss topics often treated as personal failings rather than policy failures. Brittney Walker, a mother of six and former Mormon, is screening the film to a politically mixed group in Phoenix including conservative family members and former Republicans. "It's hard to imagine anything being unifying right now, but I'm hopeful," she said.
Joanna Carolina Berry was told at a previous job that pregnancy would make her unable to do her work, a traumatizing experience she kept silent about until now. When she hosted a theater screening, the audience discussed the film for two hours afterward. "It really does take a village, and they keep telling us about the village, but they won't give us the address," she said.
Stephanie Valdez, a podcast host for girls' empowerment, rented out a library room in Las Vegas. She questioned why supporting families is treated as too complicated when other priorities move quickly through government funding.
The underlying belief uniting these mothers across political lines is simple: the current system fails everyone. As Berry put it, babies are not born Republican or Democrat.
Author James Rodriguez: "This grassroots approach turns mothers into activists instead of viewers, which is exactly the point Saujani is making about divided women wasting energy on culture wars instead of demanding the policies every mother needs."
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