Queen of the Sun wins award at Nashville Film Festival!
Queen of the Sun won the Documentary Channel Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature – Honorable Mention at the Nashville Film Festival.
Find out more about the film at Queenofthesun.com
First Queen of the Sun screening a success!
Queen of the Sun had its first sneak-peek screening in Portland, Oregon to a packed house of bee enthusiasts, beekeepers and friends. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the film. The event served as a fundraiser for finishing funds as well as donations to Spikenard Bee Sanctuary. For more information please visit www.queenofthesun.com
The Real Dirt and The Grapes of Wrath
“can think of only two great films depicting the drama of agriculture and rural life. The first is “The Grapes of Wrath.” The second is “The Real Dirt on Farmer John.”
~ Jeff Walberg, the Mt. Vernon-Lisbon Sun
This is the opening paragraph from Jeff Walberg’s column about Taggart Siegel’s great fim, The Real Dirt on Farmer John. The column appeared in the Mt. Vernon-Lisbon Sun in Iowa.
You can read the full column here:
http://www.mtvernonlisbonsun.com/article.php?viewID=5260
Looking forward to 2009
· Collective Eye is creating a Grassroots Grant Program to provide films to organizations for educational institutions and grassroots organizations. This will help the filmmakers connect with people interesting in furthering their message, get paid for their work, and give engaged individuals and organizations a valuable tool for outreach, fundraising, etc.
· Katrina Taylor stepped up the plate to head up Distribution as Cole Stamm moved on to his first loves of animation and writing. Through Katrina’s efforts, Collective Eye has brought on many new films and connected with filmmakers worldwide.
· Collective Eye Distribution began creating and collecting educational study guides to accompany films
· Taggart will began Collective Eye’s “screening nights” to showcase films and promote discussion …. at its centrally located Southeast Portland studios sometime this fall.
· Queen of the Sun Documentary Film was in full production during 2008 and continues to post production in 2009. Jon Betz was hired as Producer helped get the project going forward beautifully.
Taggart Siegel’s Queen of The Sun, an HD feature-length documentary, celebrates the renewal and reverence of honeybees. The film is a creative exploration of the escalating global bee crisis. For 10,000 years bees have been a barometer of the health of the world, flying millions of miles to pollinate the earth, providing humans with honey, medicine and fuel. Now, however, they’re in a state of emergency.
The film follows heroes dedicated to the survival of bees, from ancient cultures to biodynamic communities. Queen delivers a cohesive message: people of the world must work collaboratively- as the bees themselves- in order to avoid the cataclysmic disappearance of these essential pollinators.
We cannot rely upon scientific strategies alone: doing that keeps us locked in the rationalistic framework that has produced many of our current problems. The unfolding crisis requires philosophical insight and-heretofore unrecognized- voices to develop applications for change. Einstein was right: it’s impossible to solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.
Taggart & John honored at Roger Ebert’s 2008 Film Festival
Collective Eye co-founder and Director, Taggart Siegel joined John Peterson of The Real Dirt on Farmer John as guests and speakers at Roger Ebert’s 2008 Film Festival. Roger shows 12 film each year and Collective Eye was thrilled to learn that The Real Dirt on Farmer John was chosen to be showcased this year.
John and Taggart appeared on stage after the screening of The Real Dirt on Farmer John and spent about an hour discussing the film. They were joined by Ang Lee, Paul Schrader, Christine Lahti and other well known people in the film industry. The audience was so moved, they gave John and Taggart a standing ovation and many people were in tears as a result of the emotional impact of this wonderful film. The Real Dirt on Farmer John seems to elicit very strong and positive emotions wherever it screens. The Collective Eye Hive is very happy for our lads and the well-deserved recognition they received at this film festival.
Bee Journal from Taggart Siegel ~ New Zealand
I’ve been very fortunate meeting amazing beekeepers in the South Island of New Zealand. Many of the them come from a long line of beekeepers that go back over a hundred years. Some of the best organic honey comes out of New Zealand, especially the Manuka honey that is medicinally beneficial.New Zealand is a land where Colony Collapse Disorder hasn’t occurred, where bees are still thriving.
Bees in America are under siege with pesticides, genetically engineered crops and over breeding the queen. Bees are a barometer species and are telling us something important. All around the world Beekeepers are helping maintain healthy ecosystems with the millions of bees pollinating plants. Without the bees, future generations will not be able to bite into a delicious apple, or smell the aroma of a spring flower.
My first stop on my bee journey was Kakoura, a beautiful coastal, mountainous area where some of the best whale watching occurs in the world. Nick, a gracious certified organic beekeeper from Mountain Honey, took me in his bee truck up a Maunka forested valley to check his hives and the honey flow. It was an amazing sensation being around thousands of bees swarming around you and not having to worry (with a bee suit) about being stung.
The next day I filmed Warren Thompson, a beekeeper and sculptor. Warren says, “Art is a spiritual activity and bees really help feed that. The art of bee keeping becomes an art, not the money…It’s wonderful the way bees work with wax. Bees are a living medium that becomes a metaphor for me working with art.”Warren lives in the the high country of Hanmer Hotsprings with his wife, Elisabeth and their three daughters. Elisabeth says, “Warren’s bee hives are all healthy and they’re all well looked after. We have little dances around the bee hives when the Maunka honey comes in.” … Continue Reading