Collective Eye Team and History

OUR MISSION

Collective Eye Films is an educational film distribution company that represents compelling documentaries which explore the untold stories of our time. Our films build bridges between cultures and provide unique perspectives by exploring social, political, environmental, and spiritual issues to bring provocative and entertaining stories to the screen. We believe that film is a medium that can present critical issues, challenge audiences, and raise important questions. Keeping true to the notion that documentary films are powerful tools for change, we strive to unearth stories that make a difference.

OUR HISTORY

Taggart Siegel founded Collective Eye Films after finding traditional all-rights distributors overlooked the educational market. As a documentary filmmaker, Taggart knew his films could contribute to discourse in higher education and make a lasting difference to students, staff, and faculty. Starting in Taggart’s actual basement, our first titles were just Taggart’s and a few of his filmmaker friends. Ten years later, Collective Eye Films stands as a premiere educational distributor with a curated catalog of 200 films that see robust screening events at thousands of institutions. Our content partners include Giant Pictures, ABRAMORAMA, and Virgil Films and our catalog films have awards across major film festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, SIFF, TIFF, and DOC NYC.

Our principals have stayed consistent over the years with hyper focus on the educational market so filmmakers can work collaboratively with aggregators and consumer distributors in the hybrid release ecosystem. Our partner organizations like Kanopy, Midwest Tape, and Alexander Street press all operate strictly in the educational space with us so our filmmakers can still pursue broadcast and SVOD deals in the domestic and international markets. While we do take exclusive educational rights, we work with all our filmmakers non-exclusively for non-theatrical screenings. We believe that a filmmaker should never lose the right to screen their film, no matter what distribution route you’ve chosen.

MEET THE BOARD

Collective Eye Films is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization

Taggart Siegel

Founder & Chair of the Board

Taggart is the founder and Chair of the Board for Collective Eye Films. Siegel produced and directed Emmy-nominated, award-winning documentaries for 30 years, including Seed: The Untold Story, Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? and The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

Sophie Constantinou

Member of the Board

With over 20 years of cinematography experience, her work is guided by the belief that participatory documentary storytelling is a powerful tool for catalyzing place-based change and creating healthy, sustainable communities. She is the founder of Citizen Film.

Christopher Upham

Member of the Board

A writer-director and story consultant living in San Francisco. Mr. Upham is on Staff at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Screenwriting program and teaches workshops in Screenwriting and Visual Storytelling.

LEADERSHIP

James-Michael Boyer

Director of Operations

James-Michael Boyer is the Director of Operations at Collective Eye Films and has spent the last 6 years in the educational distribution space, working collaboratively with filmmakers to produce robust educational and non-theatrical campaigns. He serves on the board of directors for the VideoTrust organization, has spoken at ArtHouse Education, the UFVA, presented on a variety of documentary distribution panels, and led distribution focused workshops and seminars in the Portland film community.

Kanani Koster

Acquisitions and Impact Manager

Kanani Koster is the Impact and Acquisitions Manager for Collective Eye Films. She has spoken on numerous panels on race, diversity and representation in film. Kanani is the 2020 Oregon Made Film Grant winner for the docu-short, Any Oregon Sunday, and a 2020 Portland Arts Museum Re:Imagined Artist recipient. She has worked in the marketing and outreach department for both Seattle International Film Festival and the Northwest Film Center. As the Impact Manager for Collective Eye she has implemented campaigns for Personhood: Policing Pregnant Women in America and other catalogue films focusing on community driven social change and partnerships with notable organizations like ACLU and NAPW.

Diversity Audit

Audit by Kanani Koster, July 25, 2022

At Collective Eye, we have made it a point to both challenge and check our biases specifically within our catalogue. Documentary film has always been a place to learn more about the world but historically that has not meant those diverse stories and narratives are represented behind the camera. The impact a director has in understanding and telling authentic stories is undeniable and it is imperative we, and all distributors, make a concerted effort in finding and supporting those voices.

With our Director Diversity Audit we examined our catalogue to see improvements we've made under new leadership as well as what we will continue to work on. That being said, the work is never done. Moving forward we're looking to meet gender parity and continue to support BIPOC and Queer voices as well as focusing on people with disabilities in telling their own stories.