Georgia Entertainment recently released the names of the 200 Most Influential of Georgia’s Creative Industries. The individuals are highlighted in the bi-annual printed publication – Georgia Entertainment: The Creative Economy Journal. See the digital version. Our 200 Spotlight series showcases many of those that were included.
By Carol Badaracco Padgett, Senior Writer
Emily Best, Founder and CEO, Seed&Spark and Film Forward
“We have the most entrepreneurial creative community in the world … every time creators in our community advance their careers, they kick the door open for creators behind them,” says Emily Best, a Georgia-based film producer and entrepreneur who helps other filmmakers crowdfund their projects and tell their stories.
Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a platform she describes as helping make entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. Through Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program, thousands of storytellers have raised millions to bring their stories to life.
Prime examples of creators paving a way for others are these, in Best’s view: creator-led organizations like Film Impact Georgia, re:imagine/ATL, and education initiatives like the Women in Focus Summit put on by coulour.co and Ladibug Studios, as well as the creators tracks at some of our celebrated festivals like the Bronze Lens Film Festival and the Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF).
When asked what moves her the most about the Peach State, Best says, “Georgia is the sandbox for the future: of creative industries, of democracy, of culture. We have the diversity of perspectives and lived experiences that makes for an incredibly rich creative culture, and we are also home to some of the most exciting activist movements that are connected around the country and around the world.”
It’s an environment where Best fits in tightly – creating her own art, contributing to Georgia’s Creative Economy, and encouraging other creators in the process.
As her brainchild, Seed&Spark – named one of the 200 top fintech companies in the world by CNBC — serves to help deliver diverse stories into workplaces for professional development, employee engagement, and business intelligence. Alongside Seed&Spark, Best spearheads an enterprise SaaS platform called Film Forward that helps companies replace their dry, boring corporate training videos with engaging cinematic experiences.
Alongside her businesses, Best serves on the advisory boards of a number of startups, including Film Impact Georgia and SHRM-Atlanta, an organization for human resources professionals.
As a filmmaker, Best has produced films, VR, shorts, and series that have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, Slamdance, Tribeca, and other festivals. Currently, she is working on a feature documentary on the Equal Rights Amendment.
When asked what she believes to be her greatest contributions to the Creative Economy in Georgia, Best says: “Southeast-based projects are now a third of Seed&Spark’s crowdfunding business. It’s clear that Georgia’s creators are increasing the rate at which they are making new work in collaboration with their communities. And this is what excites me the most — not to [simply]import Hollywood infrastructure to Georgia, but to use the creativity and community here to build new infrastructure and new ecosystems that are better built for the visibility and sustainability of our diverse community.”
Of the many mentors Best says have helped her in her film-business journey, she notes one Georgian in particular.
“I will say Deborah Riley Draper, an incredible Atlanta-based filmmaker,” Best notes. “I met her in 2014 when Seed&Spark was still in its infancy. I was deeply inspired by her work and she helped me understand how we would have to build the platform differently in order to server creators outside of NY and LA. And because of what we learned from her, Seed&Spark has the most demographically and geographically diverse set of creators in the world.”
Then she adds, “We’re working together on my next film!”
Georgia Entertainment: The Creative Economy Journal
