Imani Davis

I don’t know if we’ve ever had such fire practical advice from a film festival programmer who — I know this is shocking — actually cares about indie filmmakers than the pod does today with my guest, Imani Davis. From how the PROOF Film Festival got started to the advice she gives directors to take notes and cut your short films, this is absolutely the pod for you if you want to make it in indie film today. I’m so excited for you to hear from such an innovative voice in the industry. 

Imani and I talk about:

• How she started a film festival that — this seems like it would be a low bar but here we are! — actually supports independent filmmakers;
• How she developed the idea of a proof of concept festival and how the board of American Cinematheque reacted;
• How PROOF works and what she learned for the third year, including partnering with CALLO and how they are prepping for accepting documentaries in 2026;
• Her thoughts on serving on the 2025 jury for NFFTY, the largest youth film festival in the world, and what it means for the future of filmmaking;
• How she handles when someone contacts her outside of the normal route of submission and how film programmers should handle this; 
• What does she wish more filmmakers knew about before they applied for the festival;
• Why so many filmmakers do not request feedback;
• How film festivals should handle representation for filmmakers; 
• The future of Los Angeles for indie filmmakers;
• What’s next for PROOF and this exciting filmmaker, including a PROOF development fund.

Imani’s Indie Film Highlights: SCOTTY’S VAG (2023) dir. by Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz; QUAKER (2025) cinematography by Vittoria Campaner; MAKE ME A PIZZA (2024) dir. by Talia Shea Levin

Memorable Quotes:

“And then I started this process of really fleshing out what this could look like, and presenting it to our Board of Directors, and our executive director was like that’s the most enthusiastic I’ve ever seen the Board about anything.” 

“Our whole maybe pile could be a whole other festival.”

“When I press play, I’m rooting for every film…I want this to be so good.”

“We just naturally have parity…and that speaks to process.” 

Links:

Follow Imani Davis On Instagram

PROOF Film Festival