Pray for Mayberry: a true story of survival, betrayal and the fight for justice. Left for dead. Lifted by faith.

A pastor called and told me there was a young man I needed to meet.

Christian was in a rehabilitation center in Wauchula, Florida. When I walked into the room he was in a wheelchair, walking was still hard for him then. I introduced myself, and he stood up, crossed the room, and hugged me. I knew nothing about his story yet. I already knew something about him.

We got to talking and I learned the family was from Oklahoma. So was I. Then they told me what had happened (the accident, the recovery, the years in between) and I understood this wasn't a story about a tragedy. It was a story about what comes after one.

I stayed ten years. People ask what kept me going, and the honest answer is that there was never a single moment. You spend that long with people and they stop being subjects. Christian and his family became my family, and my responsibility stopped being to make a good film and started being to honor the trust they placed in me.

The hardest part was asking people to return to the worst day of their lives. I asked anyway, because what came after (the forgiveness this family chose to live rather than talk about) matters more than the pain.

If someone leaves this film wanting to forgive somebody, every one of those ten years was worth it.

Jered AllenDirector