When filmmaker Lauren Melinda couldn’t find a story like her own, she decided to create the film she needed to see.

Melinda’s film Before You follows a couple in the wake of a decision they never thought they’d have to make: ending a planned pregnancy. With restrained storytelling and emotional honesty, this short film explores the intimate—and often invisible—grief of pregnancy loss.

Before You, which stars Tony-nominated actress Tala Ashe and features Adam Rodriguez, will screen on Saturday, August 23rd at 8 pm, as part of the 27th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.  In addition to the screening, Melinda and her team have also helped organize a panel conversation at the festival on Sunday, August 24th at 5 pm, which will feature filmmakers and local advocates discussing the role that film plays in the fight for reproductive justice. 

See Jane Write had a chat with Melinda as she prepares for the upcoming screening.

What inspired you to write this film?

This story is my own. My husband and I ended a planned pregnancy, and even after having my daughter, that earlier loss stayed with me. The grief didn’t disappear…it lived alongside the joy. I felt very alone in that, and when I searched for stories like ours, I couldn’t find them. When I began talking about my desire to make this film, people started sharing their own stories with me. I realized how many couples are carrying this same experience in silence, often with feelings of shame or guilt. Before You came from wanting to give shape to that silence, to show that love and loss can live in the same frame, and that none of us is as alone as we think.

The film has very little dialogue, yet the cinematography speaks volumes with its surreal elements and nonlinear structure. Why did you choose to tell the story in this way?

This is how it lived in me. The memories of loss weren’t in words; they were in my body. After having my daughter, small things would trigger the grief of what never came to be. It wasn’t logical, and it wasn’t a conversation I could explain; it was a feeling that surfaced without warning. That’s what I wanted the film to capture. We can talk endlessly about loss, but showing how it lingers in the body, through silence, through images, through the way time bends, felt far more honest and powerful.

What were some of your most memorable moments and greatest challenges in creating the film? What was it like working with Tala Ashe and Adam Rodriguez?

The most powerful moments for me were watching Tala and Adam carry an entire marriage in silence. They could tell a whole story in the way a glance landed, or in the way a hand lingered and then pulled away. That intimacy was the heart of the film. The biggest challenge was protecting it, resisting the urge to explain or soften the complexity of what they were expressing.

Working with Tala and Adam was a gift. Tala has this incredible precision; she can let you feel vulnerability and strength in the same moment. Adam brings such warmth and steadiness, and together they created a relationship that felt lived-in and real. I am so grateful to them for carrying the weight of the story with me. 

What are you hoping viewers will take away from the film? What questions do you want us to ask ourselves?

I hope viewers walk away with a fuller understanding that abortion isn’t one story…it’s many. Sometimes it lives inside crisis, sometimes inside planning and love. For those who have lived through this, I hope the film offers recognition and a sense of not being alone. For others, I hope it invites empathy and a broader perspective.

Questions I want the film to leave behind are: Can we hold both choice and grief without shame? How do we honor experiences that don’t fit into neat narratives? And how might we expand the way we talk about abortion so it includes the full spectrum of experiences?

What role do you feel film can play in current issues surrounding reproductive health?

Film has the power to bring humanity back into a conversation that too often gets reduced to politics. It can show the private, complex, lived realities that rarely make it into public view.

That’s why it’s especially meaningful to me that Before You is playing here in Alabama and in other red and purple states. These are places where restrictions are harsh and the silence can feel heavy. To have audiences show up here with openness and curiosity is deeply moving. That’s the role I believe film can play — creating a space where we can sit with difficult truths together, and maybe soften the silence around them.

Before You will screen on Saturday, August 23rd at 8 pm, as part of the 27th Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.