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
Queen of the Sun @ IFP in New York City
In keeping with Collective Eye’s vision, Independent Film Project, IFP, believes that independent films broaden the palette of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness, and fostering activism. As the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, IFP has supported the production of 7,000 films and provided resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers’ voices that otherwise might not have been heard.
Queen of the Sun was chosen to be screened at the Independent Filmmaker Conference hosted by IFP in New York City in September. Queen Director Taggart Siegel and Producer Jon Betz attended the 5-day workshop, promoted the film, and met with other filmmakers. Queen of the Sun was chosen as one of 8 out of 117 films to receive special recognition and mention by IFC (Independent Film Channel) “This year, highlights included doc promo reels of …. Queen of the Sun, a credibly activist eco-doc about the mysteries of the global collapse in bee populations directed by Taggart Siegel (The Real Dirt on Farmer John)”
http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/09/no-one-knows-anything.php
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.
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