Last year, I found myself in a dark, humming theatre at the BronzeLens Film Festival, the kind of night that reminded me why I fell in love with cinema. The TARA Theatre was alive as RATIFIED flickered to life on screen. Co-directed by Deborah Riley Draper and Sabaah Folayan, and produced by Emily Best and Megan Goedewaagen, the film unfolded a century-long fight for the Equal Rights Amendment, built from archival footage and the voices of women who refused to be silenced.
At the time, I was there on behalf of Moonshine Post Production, the studio where I worked as Head of Marketing and Events. Moonshine had handled post on RATIFIED, and I’d already met Deborah, “Deb,” around the office, while producing a podcast with her and Moonshine’s founder, Drew Sawyer. She’s one of those rare directors who carries both warmth and rigor, her energy walking a line between precision and passion.
Birds of a feather, apparently, flock together. Not long after, through Moonshine, I met Emily Best.
What began as an interview for AFPZine quickly became something deeper — a conversation about Atlanta’s creative heartbeat, about the possibilities of independence, about what happens when filmmakers stop waiting for permission and start building the world they want to work in.
If you’ve worked in indie film anytime in the past decade, you know Emily’s name. She’s the founder of Seed&Spark, the platform-turned-ecosystem that’s helped thousands of filmmakers crowdfund, build audiences, and distribute their work on their own terms.
But Seed&Spark isn’t just a fundraising site — it’s a quiet revolution in the form of a tech platform. Unlike traditional crowdfunding, it uses a “greenlight” model that releases funds once filmmakers hit 80% of their goal. Its structure rewards momentum and community over viral luck. And behind every tool is a deeper intention: to center equity, transparency, and access in an industry that too often hoards all three.
At the beginning of our conversation, I asked about the end — asking Emily first and foremost what the end goal for Seed&Spark is.
“I hear that in the frame of the business or startup universe which is, ‘What's your exit strategy?’, and I don't have one. I am very happy doing this work and I find it endlessly fulfilling. My goal is to build more useful broadly adopted tools for filmmakers and creators in general to build sustainable careers that move our culture forward in meaningful ways that are ethical top to bottom, front to back, and really just increase the value of the tools to the creators. But what's most important to me is that creators really feel like they are the stewards of that ecosystem… That it is their challenges that lead, not financial return. I know because I have built many financial models that show it is possible to build a profitable business that is fundamentally also not extractive of our community.”
That distinction — between mission and end goal — says everything about how she moves. The mission guides the day-to-day: the workshops, the mentorships, the radical transparency in how Seed&Spark shares data and insight. The goal is bigger: to rewire the system itself.
“I want us to stop talking about the Hollywood system like that. We move towards a creative ecosystem that is owned and led by the creators themselves. Right? I am just going to say this — it's probably going to upset some people. I'm the only crowdfunding platform leader who has crowdfunded for their own stuff. That should not be the case. And so we can make Seed&Spark also an entity that pressures more ethical and creator-first practices in other organizations,” she added.
Atlanta makes a lot of sense as the place for this kind of conversation. The city’s film scene is full of people trying to build something else — not a pipeline to Hollywood, but a circuit of their own; filmmakers who’d rather grow roots than chase permission slips. Emily sees the South as fertile ground for that kind of movement.
“We have to build for the margins, right? We have to build for the people outside of major markets. We have to build for people telling stories outside of the dominant narrative. We have to build for the Black, queer, trans, immigrant experience,” Emily said.
Seed&Spark’s proof is tangible: thousands of projects greenlit, tens of millions of dollars flowing directly to creators, and a new vocabulary emerging — one where network replaces competition, and community replaces scarcity.
Sitting down with Emily Best, it quickly became clear that her approach to filmmaking has always been as much about community as it is about creation. “So when we kind of presented this, which is film as community care, when we presented the ability for crowdfunding to turn your community impulse and your combining your artistic impulse and your community impulse into something that is meaningful even before you make it because crowdfunding can start the process of impact early. I was like, 'this is totally going to work, but it's not going to work because New York and LA needs it — it's going to work because everybody else needs it.’”
It’s this combination of vision and resilience that has defined Seed&Spark: a platform designed not just for raising funds, but for building networks, fostering equity, and giving creators the tools to take ownership of their work from day one.
It’s this ethos in action that brought AFPZine to the virtual discussion between founder of AFP and two filmmakers who are living the Seed&Spark philosophy in Atlanta: Amer-Marie Woods Amer-Marie Woods and Kiah Clingman. Both have navigated the challenges of independent filmmaking by leaning on community, wearing multiple hats, and turning crowdfunding into more than just a fundraising tool. It’s become an active way to build networks, amplify voices, and create meaningful impact even before cameras start rolling.
In the ever-evolving world of indie film, success isn’t always measured by box office numbers or studio backing; it’s often found in the courage to start, the audacity to fail, and the commitment to building community along the way. Amer and Kiah exemplify this ethos, using crowdfunding as both a launchpad for their projects and a tool for talking about their film (adding to its brand visibility) and fostering connections that extend far beyond when the film finally wraps.
Amer Woods didn’t start in film. A neurophysiologist by trade, she pivoted to acting during the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly found herself immersed in Atlanta’s creative community. Woods recalls her first campaign, a short film that introduced her to Seed&Spark.
While it was a project that was not successfully greenlit on the platform, Amer said, “I knew what it was going to take if I were to do it again, I needed to do a lot more work around building my community, being in other people's communities, and letting people know that I was film making at the time.”
For Woods, the lesson was clear: to make it in independent film, you have to understand every role on set. She began wearing many hats, from script supervisor, to UPM, to producer, to actor, and more; not just out of ambition, but to truly know the craft and build relationships with fellow creatives.
“If I'm going to be someone that's giving out instructions or leading on the day, I need to know what everyone does,” Amer added.
Kiah Clingman, a filmmaker originally from the Midwest who has rerooted here in Atlanta for a decade, shares Amer’s sentiment about the communal aspect of independent film. Her first introduction to Seed&Spark came via a web series, “Outlandish”, which went semi-viral despite having no budget.
When it came time to fund the second season, she turned to Seed&Spark, drawn not only to the platform’s tools but to its philosophy. “We both ended up meeting Emily [Best] at The Plaza Theater. [Seed&Spark] had a workshop and the director and I both went and the way [Emily] broke down crowdfunding. She made it feel very easy and community oriented, and then talked a lot about the benefits outside of just raising money but really creating an organic audience.”
Both Woods and Clingman see crowdfunding as more than a financial tool; it’s a phase of production that shapes how they approach storytelling, ownership and brand awareness.
“It absolutely empowers you to really own your film. You're going to know your film in and out because you're talking to people about it for 30 days straight and people are asking you questions and you have to know [the answers] and you have to be able to be confident about your film,” Kiah explained.
After running multiple Seed&Spark campaigns (10 between the two of them) Amer and Kiah emphasize preparation, strategy, and the importance of failing fast. Amer advises giving yourself a three- to six-month runway before launching a campaign, building your email list, and ensuring every team member is fully bought into the process. Kiah underscores the value of data and network awareness: “If you only know 50 people, you need to be asking for $500. You know what I mean? Like don't launch a campaign for $50,000 and you have 50 people in your collective network and that's like with your entire team, you know?”
Their shared philosophy extends beyond fundraising metrics. Success, they insist, begins the moment a creator decides to pursue a project. “I think success comes even before the green light. It comes when any creative decides that they want to do this, and they put their first foot forward to actually do it. Even people who come and do consulting with me for producing or crowdfunding…I'm like you have already taken a huge step by again investing in yourself to even have this conversation with me,” Kiah added.
Seed&Spark’s local presence in the South, particularly through Emily Best, has been a game-changer for Amer and Kiah. Beyond the technical tools, having an indie filmmaking advocate on the ground makes the platform tangible and relatable. “She doesn't feel like a typical CEO. She feels like another filmmaker,” Amer described the CEO of Seed&Spark.
Whether producing a documentary, stage play, or short film, they’ve learned that success isn’t about avoiding failure…it’s about taking the first step, learning fast, and bringing others along the journey.
As Kiah put it: “If you do it and you fail, you just attempted to do something that is very very difficult, and now you are now equipped with skills that you didn't have before…skills that you can take into your next campaign, which is exactly what I did.”
“The minute you say, ‘I'm going to raise funds,’ that is a success. You really believe in yourself, and you are betting on yourself,” Amer said.
This week, Seed&Spark launched their Crowdfunding to Build Independence Playbook, a comprehensive and open-culture document that assembles over a decade of their expertise in one place. “We want to make it as easy as possible for folks to bet on themselves and win,” Emily said.
