Chapter 06 · Director
Why I need to make this film
“This story is personal. And because it is personal, it becomes universal.”
The family — Birmingham, Alabama
I wrote the first version of Choices in 2006. I was 21. I was at Tennessee State University. I was Imani.
This story is about every Black woman who ever stayed quiet about something she should have said, who believed silence was protection, and who learned — too late, at a kitchen table — that it wasn't.
As a third-generation TSU graduate, I understand this world intimately. This is not an outside perspective trying to recreate HBCU culture. This is lived experience. I want audiences to feel what Black college life felt like in 2007 — before social media changed intimacy and connection forever.
“The decisions we make while young do not disappear. They stay with us. And sometimes, they return when we least expect them.”
— Niambi Aprili Ingram, She Is Productions LLC
Personal Legacy
Born a Tiger
“I didn't just attend Tennessee State University. I was born into it. Third-generation. The marching bands, the student center, the radio booth, the courtyard on Wild Out Wednesday — these were not sets. They were places I stood.”
Credits Card
A short bio in six lines
- Director
- Niambi Aprili Ingram
- Company
- She Is Productions LLC · Birmingham, AL
- Recent
- Essence · Sidewalk · Love Language (2025, DP Andre Ladon)
- Awards
- Best Audience Award — LA 48 Hour Film Festival
- TSU
- Third-Generation Tiger · Communications, 2007
- Roles
- Yearbook Staff Photographer '04 · SGA Film Producer '05
