One of the most important issues facing women today is their reproductive rights. Filmmaker Lauren Melinda divulges the importance of making her new short film, BEFORE YOU, to highlight the matter as well as give rise the resilience of women facing impossible choices in America.
Based on true events, BEFORE YOU depicts a couple – Tala Ashe (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Adam Rodriquez (Criminal Minds) – faced with the harsh and emotional traumatic prospect of having to undergo an abortion when a pregnancy is not viable – a procedure currently restricted or banned in 21 of the United States.
The state of access in the US has been in flux for more than two years, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and rescinded the constitutional right to abortion. The June 2022 decision returned control over the procedure back to individual states. Access now varies depending on where you are. Some states have enacted total bans, including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
BEFORE YOU has already been shown at the Cleveland Film Festival and has been selected for both St. Louis and Cordillera International Film Festivals. This important film can soon be seen at Santa Fe Film Festival, NFMLA, Filmfort, Cascadia International Women’s Festival and Cleveland International Film Festival.
It’s writer/director/producer, Lauren Melinda is an award-winning Persian American filmmaker and the founder of SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women through film.
I was fortunate to interview Lauren and discuss the importance of a movie like this when such a topic is so raw.
Joseph Jenkinson: I want to say congratulations on how well the movie is being received – along with being shown at the Cleveland Film
Festival. And it has already been selected for the St. Louis International Film Festival and Cordillera International Film
Festival!
How does it feel to have your movie shown at such an event and get this much recognition?
Lauren Melinda: It’s incredibly moving. I made Before You from a deeply personal place, so to see it resonate with others feels like both a gift and a reminder of how many people are quietly carrying similar stories. After screenings, both women and men have approached me to share their own experiences—moments that have been profoundly humbling. One woman hugged me with tears in her eyes and simply said, “Thank you. Your story is my story.”
Those moments remind me why I make films in the first place. I’m deeply grateful the film is being welcomed into spaces where these conversations can unfold with the thoughtfulness and sensitivity they deserve.
JJ: The movie is heartbreaking and empathetic in how it touches on a very vital issue that women face these days. What was the ultimate goal to craft such a visceral piece as a writer, director and producer?
LM: This film came from a very raw and personal place. After experiencing a medically necessary abortion, I found myself searching for stories that reflected what I had been through—ones that spoke to the love, the grief, and the complexity of it all. But I couldn’t find them. So I made one. Before You is meant to offer space — to sit with the feelings that don’t always have a place to land. It’s about how love and loss can coexist, and how reproductive healthcare is not just political, it’s deeply human.
JJ: As someone who filled in the writer, director and producer roles, does short filmmaking give you the creative freedom you need and want? And would you always want to stick with that when you move forward in the industry or will you prefer to delegate?
LM: Making short films has given me the creative freedom to find and refine my voice — to tell intimate stories with clarity and intention. I truly love all of these aspects of the process: writing, directing, producing…and while I have taken on multiple roles, I’m never doing it all alone. My producers, Helena and Rafa, have been incredible partners, and as a writer, I’m lucky to have a strong circle of fellow writers who offer honest feedback and push my work toward deeper places. Directing has allowed me the joy of collaborating with so many talented people across all departments—and that aspect of having to delegate and trust the team to work as one is part of what makes directing so meaningful. Even when I’m wearing my many hats, filmmaking is, and always will be, a communal art form.
JJ: There are so many brilliant female filmmakers slowly making a name for themselves and also inspiring women to stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. Was there any inspiration drawn from other female auteurs (or indeed male) as you were mapping this movie out?
LM: Absolutely. I was particularly inspired by Lynne Ramsay and Charlie Kaufman while shaping Before You. Ramsay’s ability to evoke emotional intensity through image and atmosphere—often with very little dialogue—has always resonated with me. Her films live in the unsaid, which felt especially aligned with this story.
And [Charlie] Kaufman, in a very different way, has this remarkable ability to explore memory, grief, and identity through layered, often surreal storytelling. His work gave me the confidence to trust abstraction and allow the emotional truth to lead, even when the narrative structure is subtle. Both filmmakers remind me that intimacy can be cinematic—and that you don’t have to explain everything for it to be felt.
JJ: What would you say a film like this does for women in not just the industry but in all aspects of life, particularly in dealing with the issue of banning abortion in a great number of states in America?
LM: At a time when women’s autonomy is being legislated away, I believe stories like Before You serve as acts of
resistance. The film doesn’t shout it—yet it invites confrontation. It says: “This happened. It matters. And you’re not alone.”
This mission extends beyond just this film. Through my nonprofit production company, Simbelle Productions, we’re
dedicated to empowering women through film by supporting female-driven narratives that might otherwise go untold.
We believe in the power of cinema not
just as art, but as a catalyst for conversation and change.
That’s why we’re also running a social impact campaign alongside Before You, in collaboration with Planned
Parenthood Federation of America. Their partnership has been essential in helping us build thoughtful,
compassionate dialogue around reproductive healthcare. With their support, we’re reaching wider audiences through community screenings, educational resources, and facilitated discussions.
These efforts are about creating spaces where people can engage with these topics in meaningful ways. I hope the film helps normalize the complex emotional responses that often accompany abortion and reminds people that their stories are valid, even—especially—when the world tries to silence them. Within the industry, it’s also a call to make more room for narratives that hold emotional and political truths side by side.
JJ: What are you working on next?
LM: I’m currently in development on my first narrative feature film, a psychological thriller about a female painter who’s
molded by a Berlin art gallery into a marketable version of herself—and the emotional unraveling that follows. It
explores themes of identity, dissociation, and the haunting residue of trauma, all through a distinctly feminine lens.
In addition, my production company, Simbelle Productions, recently celebrated the world premiere of our firstnarrative feature Satisfaction (starring Emma Laird) at SXSW. It was a major milestone and marks the beginning of our next chapter—one rooted in championing bold, female-led work across all formats.
