I saw “Waitress” at an art-house theater when I was in high school, and it instantly became one of my favorite movies. A few months after seeing the bittersweet dramedy about a pregnant woman trying to transform her life, I chose to commemorate the film’s director, Adrienne Shelly, for my Día de los Muertos project for Spanish class.

“Waitress” should have been Shelly’s breakout as a filmmaker. It was a festival hit, was honored by the National Board of Review, and received Independent Spirit Award and Humanitas Prize nominations. But Shelly never got to enjoy the spoils of her work and vision; she was murdered on November 1, 2006, before “Waitress” was even accepted to Sundance, where it would make its debut.

Despite “Waitress” being adapted into a Tony-nominated Broadway musical, not many people know Shelly’s story, something her widower, Andy Ostroy, seeks to rectify with his HBO documentary, “Adrienne.” It’s a tribute to a beloved daughter, wife, friend, and mother; a much-needed recognition of a creative voice who has never received her due; and — to a lesser extent — a recounting of a murder and subsequent quest for justice.

For the most part, “Adrienne” will be exactly what Shelly fans or those interested in women’s cinema are looking for. It presents her life from beginning to end via archival footage, home videos, and emotional interviews with friends and family. Clips from Shelly’s acting work and the screen and stage versions of “Waitress” are also showcased. It’s a film that sets out to remind the world of who Shelly was, and who she could have been had her life not been stolen. When she died, there weren’t as many conversations about gender representation behind the camera. She broke ground for women filmmakers with “Waitress,” and she doesn’t receive nearly enough credit for it. Maybe she would have had she lived. Maybe she would have had a career on par with Greta Gerwig or Nicole Holofcener or Chloé Zhao.

Fortunately, the documentary never loses sight of Shelly herself, even when it shifts its attention to her family’s grief, or Ostroy debating whether to confront her murderer face-to-face. From its first moments to its credits, “Adrienne” lovingly reminds the world what a force Shelly was and is. While she was with us, she broke barriers for women filmmakers; set up after her death, The Adrienne Shelly Foundation has awarded over 100 production grants to female filmmakers.

I so wish Shelly had been able to make movies to her heart’s content, as long as she wanted to; I so wish I, and the world, could have seen those films; I so wish Ostroy hadn’t lost his wife, and their daughter hadn’t lost her mother. Yet I’m so grateful Shelly’s legacy lives on, through “Waitress” and its Broadway adaptation, through the Foundation, and now through “Adrienne.”

“Adrienne” premieres tonight, December 1, at 8 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max.