INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY
CHRISTMAS BETWEEN
Love, Legacy, and the Light in Between
AN AI SHORT FILM
The film’s visuals were generated with AI from a human-written screenplay, with human voice performance, editing, and direction.
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."
Executive Producer & Director: Sheila Michelle Foye
Writer: Anthony Lamarr White
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.
The Voice Behind the Vision
Sheila Michelle Foye
Executive Producer & Director
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:
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Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award
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America’s 100 Women to Know
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Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women in Business graduate.
The Family at the Heart of the Story
Maya Varner
A mother learning to love again after loss
Malik Prince
The son whose spirit guides her home
Nicholas Dyer
A man of patience, prayer, and second chances
Dr. Shaunie Still
The grief counselor who teaches that healing is holy work
Faith Miles
The daughter whose resilience rekindles belief
Stephon Miles
The son masking grief through noise and humor
Christian Prince
The surviving twin learning to breathe again
INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY
CHRISTMAS BETWEEN
Love, Legacy, and the Light in Between
AN AI SHORT FILM
The film’s visuals were generated with AI from a human-written screenplay, with human voice performance, editing, and direction.
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.