Documentary shines spotlight on Alabama’s IVF debate at Sidewalk Film Festival
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —
A documentary about four Alabama women navigating infertility treatments will screen Saturday during the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham.
“Show Me the Line” began after a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court ruling determined that frozen embryos could be considered children under the state’s wrongful-death law. The decision prompted fertility clinics across Alabama to pause in vitro fertilization treatments.
Lawmakers later approved legal protections for IVF providers and patients.
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Director Kelsey Ianuzzi said the documentary focuses less on the legal debate and more on the personal experiences of the people affected.
“The film does not focus on the legal landscape as much as it focuses on the real lived experience of the people who are impacted by it,” Ianuzzi said.
One of the women featured in the film is Birmingham resident Jamie Heard. Heard was diagnosed with a condition that made it difficult to conceive. She and her husband turned to IVF and welcomed a son four years ago.
When the court ruling was issued, the couple had just begun a second round of IVF in hopes of having another child.
“We had literally just started the second round of IVF to go ahead and give my son a sibling,” Heard said. “But when that ruling came down, I had no choice but to advocate because they felt like they were personally attacking my family or what could be my future family.”
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Heard said she also wanted the documentary to challenge the perception that IVF is an issue only affecting wealthy white women.
“One of the storylines that was kind of born around when the decision first came down was that this is a rich white woman fight,” Heard said. “And I know that I’m neither rich, and I’m not white neither. And so I felt that it was important for representation for us brown girls to be seen and represented.”
Ianuzzi followed the four women for more than a year, documenting the emotional highs and lows of their different fertility journeys.
She hopes audiences leave the film with a deeper understanding of the personal impact of infertility and IVF.
“I really hope that they leave feeling more empathetic to one another, more understanding of what people go through, how personal it is,” Ianuzzi said.
“Show Me the Line” will screen Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre and again at 7 p.m. at the DJD Theatre inside the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
The filmmaker said the documentary is ultimately about the people behind the headlines—and the families who continue to struggle to conceive.