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AN AI SHORT FILM

CHRISTMAS BETWEEN

Love, Legacy, and the Light in Between

Gold snowflake icon

A grieving mother discovers that loss does not have to end legacy when a Christmas miracle leads her family toward forgiveness, healing, love, and light in a way they never have before.

A Christmas Miracle, A Mother's Reckoning

Maya Varner has a wonderful life, but she hasn't been living it. Not since the death of her eldest twin son, Malik, ten years ago.

On the outside, Maya has rebuilt everything. She's the managing partner of a successful equity firm. After a painful divorce from her children's father, she's found a loving fiancé, Nicholas, who has waited patiently for her to accept his proposal. But on the inside, she's still grappling with a grief that becomes unbearable every holiday season.

This Christmas Eve, a snowstorm shuts down the city and leaves Maya in a life-threatening situation. What follows is a spiritual journey through her own life: as a pregnant mother of twins, as a grief-stricken wife navigating divorce, and as a mother trying to console the twin son left behind.

As dawn breaks on Christmas morning, Maya awakens surrounded by light, love, and a peace she hasn't felt in years. She asks her children and her former husband for forgiveness. And in that moment of clarity, she takes Nicholas's hand and does what once terrified her: she says, "Yes, I will marry you."

Two smiling women hugging in front of a Christmas tree

More Than a Movie, A Movement

The Christmas Between is a cinematic love letter to grief, motherhood, and faith. A story where loss becomes legacy, pain births purpose, and Christmas becomes the day love comes home again.

Rooted in the spirit of holiday redemption films like The Preacher's Wife and Black Nativity, this film brings warmth, healing, and representation to a genre that rarely centers Black women's grief, and Black women's joy.

Beyond the screen, the film anchors a broader grief-healing ecosystem that offers real-world resources, circles, and experiences for those learning to live between what was and what still can be.

It's not just a movie. It's a movement of hope, healing, and wholeness.

Help Bring This Story Home

Every contribution helps bring this story, and the healing it represents, to life. Whether through a donation, a partnership, or simply spreading the word, you become part of the legacy this film is creating.

The Voices Behind the Vision

 Sheila Michelle Foye, creator and executive producer of The Christmas Between

Sheila Michelle Foye

Creator & Executive Producer

Michelle is an award-winning strategist, executive producer, and ecosystem builder merging business, faith, and storytelling. With over 25 years in strategy, healthcare, and brand architecture that include roles at Truist, Accenture, CapGemini, and major health systems, she brings deep operational, creative, and funding expertise.


She is the visionary behind Christmas Between, extending her signature philosophy of healing through systems and storytelling into film.
 

Notable Honors: 

  • Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award

  • America’s 100 Women to Know

  • Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women in Business graduate.

Jennifer Pessima, writer, director, and producer of The Christmas Between

Jennifer Pessima

Writer, Director & Producer

Jennifer is an award-winning filmmaker and rising voice in faith-based entertainment. A Clark Atlanta University alumna, she began her career producing Your World with Creflo Dollar (BET/WGN) and went on to produce projects such as This Is 30s (Tubi), The Despaired (BET+), and I Am John Gabbana (NBCUniversal Black Experience Grant Winner).


Jennifer’s direction fuses cinematic excellence with faith-driven authenticity that shapes Christmas Between into a story of redemption, community, and hope.

The Family at the Heart of the Story

Maya Varner, a mother learning to love again after loss

Maya Varner

A mother learning to love again after loss

Malik Prince, the son whose spirit guides his mother home

Malik Prince

The son whose spirit guides her home

Nicholas Dyer, Maya's patient and prayerful fiancé

Nicholas Dyer

A man of patience, prayer, and second chances

Dr. Shaunie Still, the family's grief counselor

Dr. Shaunie Still

The grief counselor who teaches that healing is holy work

Faith Miles, the daughter whose resilience rekindles belief

Faith Miles

The daughter whose resilience rekindles belief

Stephon Miles, the son masking grief through humor

Stephon Miles

The son masking grief through noise and humor

Christian Prince, the surviving twin learning to breathe again

Christian Prince

The surviving twin learning to breathe again

AN AI SHORT FILM

CHRISTMAS BETWEEN

Love, Legacy, and the Light in Between

Gold snowflake icon

INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY

A grieving mother discovers that loss does not have to end legacy when a Christmas miracle leads her family toward forgiveness, healing, love, and light in a way they never have before.

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