How the Supreme Court Spurred the Oscar-Nominated Short ‘Red, White and Blue’

Anyone who watches the Oscar-nominated live action short “Red, White and Blue” can probably figure out exactly when and why the film was written. The story of a single mother (Brittany Snow) with two children who must travel out of state for an abortion, the wrenching 23-minute film from first-time director Nazrin Choudhury feels like the direct product of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the right to abortion established almost 50 years earlier in Roe v. Wade.

And sure enough, that’s exactly when Choudhury got the idea. “It was written in July, the very next month after the decision had been made and there were so many news articles about the real-world consequences and repercussions for so many people,” she said.