Subsequent to Explores Grief, Survival, and the Quiet Aftermath of Tragedy

Written by Nia Bowers

After recently screening at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, one of Los Angeles’ most recognized independent film festivals, Subsequent to stands out as a film that approaches an overwhelmingly difficult subject with restraint and emotional honesty. Presented as part of the festival’s official selection, the short film immediately leaves an impression not through spectacle, but through the quiet tension and grief that linger in nearly every scene.

Written and directed by Madison Mitchell, the film Subsequent to centers on two sisters who survive a high school mass shooting and return home to their mother as the three of them attempt to process the devastating night unfolding around them. The film follows the family through the immediate aftermath, capturing the numbness, confusion, and exhaustion that settle in once survival itself becomes reality.

Instead of focusing on spectacle or shock, Mitchell keeps the story deeply personal. The film is less interested in the event itself than in what happens afterward: the silence inside the house, the interrupted conversations, and the impossible feeling of trying to move normally through grief. That restraint gives Subsequent to a realism that feels unsettling in its simplicity.

Part of what strengthens that atmosphere is the film’s approach to music. The score reinforces that atmosphere with equal care. Rather than reach for orchestral weight, the production sought something more stripped-back, guitar-centered, intimate, and deliberately resistant to emotional instruction. This was a precise compositional choice: in a film where the central trauma resists articulation, an over-arranged score would have closed off the very silences the narrative depends on. After reviewing nearly 180 composers, the filmmakers selected Sol Toledo, a decision that reflects not just a stylistic match, but a genuine understanding of what the film required structurally.

Toledo, who is also a singer-songwriter, brought a style that matched the emotional tone of the film without overwhelming it. Her approach to the score relies on restraint as a technique rather than a default, sparse guitar figures, extended silences, and minimal harmonic movement that allows tension to accumulate without resolution. The compositions do not illustrate the film’s emotions so much as shadow them, moving just beneath the performances, adding weight without adding noise. Where a conventional score might underscore a character’s grief with swelling strings or a recognizable melodic motif, Toledo’s work withholds. The effect is less like a traditional score and more like ambient memory, present but unobtrusive, felt before it is consciously noticed.

Beyond Subsequent to, Toledo has built a career across film and television, including work tied to Netflix productions, while also developing her own music as an artist. Her credits include work tied to Netflix productions, where she developed her capacity to compose for emotionally complex, character-driven material at scale. As a solo artist, she has released original work that consistently draws on the same principles visible in her screen compositions: economy of means, tonal precision, and an instinct for space. That combination gives her work a more personal quality, something that fits naturally within the world Mitchell created. 

The result is a film that feels grounded from beginning to end. Subsequent to does not attempt to provide easy answers or dramatic resolutions. Instead, it offers a glimpse into the reality many students and families have been forced to confront, showing how grief can reshape even the smallest moments long after tragedy occurs.

Photo Credit: Sol Toledo