We've all been there. We make a short film we love that's all dressed up with have nowhere to go. The festival circuit is a blast, and sometimes a short is intended to live and die just as it is—a self contained film that lives and dies as is and hopefully expresses talent for more.
But what if our short was made with the intention of something more? A capsule of a larger project we hope the short leads to?
That's where PROOF Film Fest is here to help. Developed with festival director Imani Davis alongside the American Cinematheque, PROOF offers a shorts fest with the intention of bigger, loftier goals. Only on its second year its a very fun and cool fest with lots to offer. Not only are there keenly curated shorts blocks from rising filmmakers, but also plenty of panels and networking opportunities—this year even included panels with the filmmakers behind Whiplash and Didi, two notable success stories in the field of short to feature greatness.
Check out our interview with Festival Director Imani Davis below, and click here for more info. Submissions scheduled to open in January if you wish to apply (you should!).
Editor's note: the following interview is edited for length and clarity.
No Film School: How did you get the idea for PROOF Film Fest and how did it all come together?
Imani Davis: So when I came into the American Cinematheque as a film programmer, there was this want on their end to do something more with short films and emerging filmmakers in general. And it was kind of a blank canvas of, "hey, go think of something we can do with short films." And we're like, okay, [let's try] something different.
We didn't want to do another short film festival in LA. There's so many. So it [came down to] how can we fill a need and a gap with local filmmakers in Los Angeles especially, but also around the world.
NFS: What were some of the obstacles bringing together a new, diverse film festival?
Davis: We explored a lot of different things. Something that kept coming up was this idea of not really knowing what to do with it next [with your short film].
That got me thinking that a lot of short films have been made that way. I have a bunch—I think there's over 16, just that I know went from short to feature. I thought there's a bunch of festivals out there for that, so I Googled it, and there was nothing. I was like, oh, there's our idea. So here we are.
NFS: How did you get involved with the American Cinematheque?
Davis: I started working in this program two and a half years ago and got connected with the AC because I met some people at the programming team in Chicago—that's where I came from before I moved to LA.
When the American Cinematheque was starting to look around for a new film programmer, they wanted someone with a community background that is community oriented, maybe hadn't had a full-time role in film programming before.
Someone that's connected in the film programming world put my name in the hat and then I got connected to them. We hit it off on a Zoom and then I was asked to move to LA.
NFS: PROOF accepts shorts internationally, what's that intake like?
Davis: Yeah, all over the world. We have all kinds of stuff. A lot of LA based filmmakers because I think there is an industry speak of knowing what a proof of concept is and knowing what to do with those. People tend to be in LA. We have a lot of people from New York. We also, we do get some commissions that's growing from international filmmakers—well, we have film this year from Russia in the Sci-Fi block.
NFS: Do you have any specific qualifications for what qualifies as a "proof of concept", or is it more open?
Davis: What we're looking for—because we think this makes it the most interesting factor in a festival atmosphere—is something that has a beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes people will do a sizzle reel, or they'll do a trailer or something. We're not trying to do that because it doesn't really make it interesting for a festival screening.
So we want a full short film. If you think about "Whiplash" and how that functions as a great short—we actually had a panel about the making "Whiplash" yesterday. We also have a "Didi" panel happening tonight. So yeah, we want that full and complete story. And that was something that the "Whiplash" filmmakers said they strived for—they wanted something that would play in the festival circuit and Sundance and stuff. So things that can have a life outside of just being proof of concept.
We also definitely want to feel that sense of the world after the short ends—like, oh my gosh, it's not totally a cliffhanger, so it's a balance. It's an art and a science of what makes a good proof of concept.
NFS: I know it's only the second year, but did you have anything that screened last year that's had success and picked up traction from the festival?
Davis: For sure. We had some cool stories that come through. Obviously it's a long term game. These things take so long. Since the festival last year, some of the filmmakers have had some really cool attachments made. We keep in touch with a lot of our alumni like, "Hey, what's happening? How can we support? How can we help?" If there are any connections that we can make, we have them.
Some of them are attaching talent. We have a filmmaker who got a manager through the festival afterwards and then got different producers attached to his project. We do have one short that did finish principal photography. They were pretty close to already doing that for the festival, so now they're in the stage of postproduction and such.
NFS: That's awesome. Do you guys do a lot of outreach, like getting producers and managers and such to come here?
Davis: Yes. We do a lot of outreach. But marketing to film industry professionals is tough. It's a lot of personalized emails, getting in touch with people at networking events, and meeting people at other film festivals.
It's not just the easy recruiting thing. We do a lot of outreach. We try and organize things as much as possible for filmmakers to meet producers and financiers, studio people, production companies that are on the lookout for up-and-coming talent—managers and agents too. We get them involved in the jury for PROOF. We have meetings happening at the Culver Hotel (across the street), which is right there during this weekend that we set up the filmmakers on in partnership with this platform called Palo, which is a new platform for film industry professionals to connect with each other based on creative tastes. And so there's input meetings happening. So a lot happening in many different ways that they can.
NFS: I always think it's interesting to pick programmers brains as to if someone has their heart set on a festival, how would they best approach getting their film?
Davis: We have a tight program with PROOF. We can't take that many films because we're just a weekend—Friday through Sunday. We have very limited number of spots. So the quality is the most important. It's my favorite compliment when people come out and they're like, "that block was straight bangers."
[Most important] is that the story is there. Production value... you really pay attention to that here because I mean, that's what you need if you want to expand it. Do you have a good film here? And then also we have people submit a statement of intent for their film, which is one to two paragraphs of, "Oh, this is what I'm picturing the experience looking like", to maybe some things that they already have in motion. Maybe some [industry] attachments.
More or less, what's the plan? So having a good film and then having a good plan.
