Daryl Bright Clay is stepping behind the camera for the first time. The actor, producer, and community organizer, known for her work with CNT Productions, will make her directorial debut this November with Sam’s Hail Mary, a short film she also wrote.
The story follows 10 year old Sam, who begins to question whether she’s truly made in God’s image after she’s cast as the Donkey in her school’s Nativity play while her lighter skinned friend lands the role of Mary. What starts as childhood disappointment turns into something darker, as Sam goes to increasingly extreme lengths trying to reshape herself into who she believes God, and everyone around her, will actually love.
Lathan Ava, known for Abbott Elementary and The Morning Show, stars as Sam.
Bright Clay describes the film as a love letter to every girl and woman who has measured herself against a reflection that was never meant to be hers. She’s said the way people see God and the Divine shapes not only how they see others, but how they see themselves, and that this gets harder to untangle in a media landscape saturated with whiteness or proximity to it.
The project is being co-produced by Thomas Walter Booker of Purp Door Productionz, a longtime collaborator of Bright Clay’s. Sam’s Hail Mary was already named a semi finalist in Shore Scripts’ 2025 Short Film Fund competition, and the team is now racing against the clock to fund production. A Seed & Spark crowdfunding campaign launched last week, and the production has less than three weeks left to hit its goal in order to bring the film to screens in 2027.
For Bright Clay, the project extends beyond the film itself. She’s planning a multi city social impact campaign built around workshops on self worth, aimed at building a deeper sense of love and understanding within faith based communities and local institutions.
You can follow the production’s journey on Instagram at @SamsHailMary and support the campaign at seedandspark.com/fund/sams-hail-mary.