From her kitchen table in Mexico City, Noemí, a mother-of-two runs an underground network accompanying women in Trump’s America through self-managed abortions. But the more Noemí gives to strangers, the less is left for herself and her family. Told observationally, CROSSED asks: who takes care of the carer?
SYNOPSIS
A phone number is circulating across the US. It doesn't lead to a clinic or a doctor. It leads to a kitchen table in Mexico City, and Noemí, a mother of two who supports women across Mexico and the US through at-home abortions.
Noemí runs a community abortion network practising el acompañamiento: a model of community abortion care that operates around the clock, accompanying women from start to end of the process. She threads this invisible labour through school runs, errands, and whatever paid work she can find, doing it for free while raising two children alone.
For decades, it was Mexican women travelling north for abortions their own country criminalised. Then it flipped. When Roe v. Wade fell, for the first time, it was American women calling south for help.
As the calls surge, Noemí and her network invite American activists to Mexico to learn the el acompañamiento model firsthand, sharing their blueprint and a reminder: these community care networks once existed in the US too, and can be built again, stronger and sustainably.
It stirs something closer to home too. The independence she fights to give other women is the same one she's chasing for herself.
By the end of the film, Noemí has turned years of unpaid care into a paid role, building her own route to independence, and a better life for her family.
Director Statement
A few years ago, I had an abortion in the UK. It was legal, it was free, but it was lonely. I didn't really understand why I felt so inadequate. Time passed and I didn't think about it much, until a trip to Mexico, where I came across a group of women running a community abortion care network. Why did it take meeting women on the other side of the world for me to understand my own experience?
They made me realise that, somewhere along the way, the society I grew up in got used to outsourcing care, away from the community and into the hands of institutions. And with that, we forgot the kind of knowledge that used to move between friends, neighbours, mothers. It was dismantled.
I am making this film to reimagine the abortion process: a process that can happen in company, with help and transparency, not behind closed doors. This film is for anyone who wakes up exhausted in a divided world. It's a reminder that the answers might already be around us, in each other.
Away from clinics and courtrooms, the Mexican network proposes care as a form of resistance. They remind us that change can happen on a day-to-day basis, in kitchens and hair salons, between strangers on a phone who refuse to wait for permission.
Supporter Statement
"This is a critically important film that beautifully flips the traditional first- and second-world narrative, showing how Mexican women have developed homegrown strategies to confront the ongoing attacks on women's reproductive rights in the United States."
— Debra Zimmerman, Women Make Movies
"CROSSED is a bold and resonant project that celebrates women, their resilience, and their extraordinary ability to lift one another up. It is a compelling work with the power to reach audiences worldwide, bringing them together at a time of profound political change and offer them a new take on a very important and compelling subject."
— Marco Spagnoli, MIA Market
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Carla Grande
Born in Spain, living in London, Carla is a director and cinematographer with a track record making documentaries for the world's biggest platforms including Netflix, BBC and National Geographic. She’s drawn to character-driven reframing global conversations through domestic settings. Her projects have been nominated for a Grierson, an Emmy and a BAFTA. Her credits include global hit Depp v Heard (Netflix) and the award-winning Poisoned: The Killer in the Post (Channel 4), which premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Her independent films have screened at accredited festivals including the British Film Institute, Double Exposure, Folkestone Film Festival and London Short Film Festival. Crossed is her first independent feature.
Lucy Draper
Lucy is a documentary producer with a background in journalism. She has worked on films for A24, Netflix and Amazon, and produced Oscar-qualifying shorts that have been screened at a range of international festivals including SXSW, Warsaw and ZagrebDox.
She has twice been selected for BFI Doc Society delegations and was part of the inaugural Scottish Doc institute DOC Sessions cohort. Her feature debut film WOLF, about the musician Patrick Wolf and EP’d by Tilda Swinton, premiered at Sheffield DocFest 2026, and she has a slate of films in funded development and production.
She leads fundraising and production strategy on CROSSED, ensuring the film balances editorial integrity with sustainability.
PROMOTE THIS PROJECT
Put a donation widget on your site. Click here for code.
ABOUT YOUR DONATION
Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
Your contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law, and a confirmation of your donation will be sent via email. WMM will send you an acknowledgement letter in the mail to the address listed for tax purposes.
