Now through Nov. 15, five small South Florida arts organizations are vying for the Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award, offering a $20,000 prize. Below, Diliana Alexander talks about why the Indie Film Club should get your vote. To see the other nominees and to text to vote, visit knightarts.org/peopleschoice. Q. Why should your group win the People’s Choice Award?

A. Indie Film Club Miami, a non-profit anchored in the South Florida film and arts community, has created a strong base of content creators with a variety of backgrounds. We saw their desire to generate collaborative art, as well as the growing importance of technology as a tool in the arts. Understanding the significance of cross platform storytelling, already growing in popularity and demand in other major production cities like Berlin, New York, Toronto, Angeles, we gave it a stage.  Our goal is to shuttle transmedia and cross-platform storytelling to South Florida, as well as to activate the creation of local projects. After we wrapped our first year FILMGATE conference, we witnessed the emergence of cross-platform projects in Miami. We considered that a successful byproduct of FILMGATE.  New technology is changing the ways stories are told and FILMGATE, with keynote speakers, workshops and interactive screenings, as well as immersive and interactive experiences, takes South Floridians out of their seats, challenging them in ways no festival has done before in a socially-conscious, eco-friendly manner.

Q. What would you do with the $20,000 prize?

A. FILMGATE will channel the funding toward essentials in the expansion of the conference. With key contributors and speakers, such as tech-savvy Philip Bloom and the indie experimental artist Vincent Moon, based internationally, the funds will allow us to fly and host them here. Funds also will be allocated to local artists, allowing them to finish projects for the conference and offering them incentive awards toward their next production, further promoting the local industry. We will secure interesting and established venue spaces in Miami Beach and Miami, as well as the resources necessary to create the interactive exhibitions and creative campaigns that will be the cornerstone of FILMGATE. To help make FILMGATE accessible to all of South Florida, these funds will be instrumental in keeping entrance fees low. Finally, the Indie Film Club will help promote FILMGATE on a local, national and international scale. We understand the potential value of the award and would use the funds responsibly to ensure that the second year of FILMGATE be more successful than the first, aiming to attract local, national and international attention, filmmakers and audiences.

Q. What’s your favorite part of being an artist in Miami?

Most important to us is the resilience of the South Florida artists in sharing their social, environmental and culturally diverse stories. South Florida is home to artists of all types and skill levels. This allows for invaluable opportunities to conspire with others to conceive and construct projects never before dreamed of. As technology advances, capturing an audience’s attention is becoming increasingly difficult. But the audience is there, the talent is here and the venues are here. Artists and audiences alike are open to becoming more engaged, by immersing themselves in the artistic experience. We look at South Florida as a creative sandbox, where we and other organizations encourage collaboration and experimentation. At FILMGATE we will encourage visual storytellers to explore avenues and mediums to tell their story in their own unique way, also to interact with their audiences, as well as to utilize new technology. We aim to provide the foundation for the visual storyteller’s evolution toward the future of storytelling.To vote for the Indie Film Club, text ARTS1 to 22333.