Actress Tiffani Thiessen, star of such TV hits as Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210, has turned director with the lovely short film Just Pray, showing tomorrow as part of the Rhode Island International Film Festival’s “Actor Turned Filmmaker Showcase.”

Just Pray is an auspicious beginning, a sentimental coming-of-age story about a young Southern boy who trusts that the power of prayer will be the answer to his problems.

Cyrus (Zac Gardner) has many of them. His sweet, understanding mother, the only person he can truly feel comfortable with, is dying of cancer. Overweight, he is picked on by his brother and the other kids at school, and not only because of his weight. He is showing homosexual interests, poring over magazine photos of beefy men. He also has the growing fear that if his mother dies, there will be no one who is on his side.

Much of the film is set in a beauty parlor where the hairdresser (Constance Zimmer) takes Cyrus under her wing. The film hints that she’s a lesbian who shows compassion and understanding for Cyrus’s unhappy situation. Thiessen has staged a lovely scene from R. Dean Johnson’s script, between Cyrus and Zimmer’s Corley, in which she helps him come to term with the present and gain a measure of hope for the future. The 20-plus-minute film ends on a note of sadness, but also of hope.

Thiessen has captured the theme in an understated way. With solid work by young Gardner as the film’s tragic yet optimistic hero, plus strong support by Zimmer and Janel Maloney as Cyrus’ mother, Just Pray shows great promise for Thiessen’s future behind the camera.

Just Pray will be screened in a program of short films beginning at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Columbus Theatre Cinematheque, 270 Broadway, Providence. Just Pray shows great promise for Thiessen’s future behind the camera.