Work-In-Progress Support Grant 2025
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.
As a boutique company founded by Emmy-Nominated filmmaker, Taggart Siegel, we understand the grit, tenacity, and vulnerability it takes for filmmakers to put their work out into the world. With these trying times of a changing media landscape, continued need to fight studios for equitable pay, and natural disasters affecting artists we understand there is a pressing need within our filmmaking community for support.
Collective Eye Film is proud to have offered a $5000 unrestricted grant to support a documentary filmmaker in sustaining a project through trying times. We were specifically looking to support an underrepresented filmmaker with a current documentary feature in progress that embodies the stories and truth that Collective Eye Films looks to represent.
Grant Winner
Mai is a multi-award-winning director and director of photography whose work spans documentaries and commercial campaigns, with a proven track record of creating content that drives social change. Her films have reached audiences at over 100 prestigious international festivals, including Berlinale, SXSW, IDFA, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. Her debut feature documentary, GARBAGE DREAMS garnered 26 international awards, secured a place on the Academy Award shortlist, earned a Directors Guild of America nomination, and — most significantly — helped secure a million-dollar Gates Foundation grant for its subjects.
In the commercial space, Mai has directed high-profile campaigns for global brands including Apple, Dove, Garnier, and Walmart. Her “Care Counts” campaign for Whirlpool earned four Lions at the Cannes Festival, an AICP Next Award, and a D&AD Impact White Pencil, while generating 446 million media impressions.
Project in Development
PRIDE & HONOR follows Lilly Steffanides (they/them), a veteran who emerged from homelessness and addiction to lead a historic lawsuit against the Department of Defense, fighting for their own military burial rights and honor for over 100,000 LGBTQI+ veterans discharged for their identity. Given just six months to one year to live, Lilly’s urgent battle for equality takes on heightened significance amid escalating anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide, as this documentary captures their race against time to secure justice for past and future generations.
Jury
Daniel Moretti (any pronouns with positive intent) has more than 15 years of experience working at the intersection of film and social change, with a specialty in LGBTQIA+ media. He has held roles at Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, ITVS, Active Voice, the Global Film Initiative, and FashionTV Philippines. Daniel is currently Program Management Director at PRIDEnet, based out of Stanford University, focusing on LGBTQIA+ health research. Outside of work, Daniel likes to travel, find tasty vegetarian restaurants, and feed his passion for fashion.
Taggart Siegel has produced and directed Emmy-nominated, award-winning documentaries including QUEEN OF THE SUN: What are the Bees Telling Us? and THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN (ITVS, Independent Lens). These films received critical-acclaim during their theatrical release and garnered over 40 international awards. Siegel is a Fledgling Outreach and Engagement Lab Fellow and was selected to Britdoc’s GOODPITCH for SEED: The Untold Story. He produced the National Geographic film DISENCHANTED FOREST about orangutans in Borneo and was the director of the feature length fiction film SHADOW OF A PEPPER TREE. Taggart is the founder and Executive Director of Collective Eye Films, a non-profit media production and distribution organization based in Portland, Oregon.
Mara Henderson's (pronoun: she) work is dedicated to fostering curiosity and instilling hope for a more just and liberated future through organizing and creative storytelling. Mara joined Working Films in 2023 and she previously has worked in documentary production and post production, at an international climate justice network and on political campaigns at the state level. In Mara's current role as Impact Coordinator, she develops and implements Working Films' issue focused organizing with film, including Beyond Walls, a prison industrial complex abolition compilation, and Workers Rights, a collection of films on worker organizing. Mara enjoys working closely with organizers across the country, connecting film with activism.
Caitlin Boyle is the Executive Director of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival (MNFF) in Middlebury, Vermont, and a documentary film producer and impact producer. She has served for more than fifteen years as a leading expert in the use of film as a tool for amplifying social good and inspiring civic engagement. Her past work has included roles as Director of Filmmaker Development and Director of Industry at DOC NYC, the nation’s largest doc festival, and, for ten years, Founder and Executive Director of Film Sprout, which pioneered the use of grassroots and campus networks to broaden the audience and social impact of independent film.
Kitty Hu is a queer, Chinese documentary producer and Head of Development at Shoes Off Media. She recently directed the Emmy-winning L.A. Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement (PBS Artbound) and produced “Taste the Nation” (Hulu), “Wild Hope” (PBS), “Take Out with Lisa Ling” (HBO Max). Kitty’s work applies community-centered documentary tactics to amplify character-driven stories that reflect the work of our social movements. She also supports impact and advocacy opportunities at Brown Girls Doc Mafia and is a proud member of the Asian American Documentary Network and Global Impact Producers Alliance.
Christopher Upham is a writer-director and story consultant living in San Francisco. Return to Dak To, Mr. Upham’s prizewinning documentary about the long-term effects of combat, won prestigious Pacific Pioneer and Fleishhacker grants and centers on Upham’s experiences as a medic traveling back to Vietnam with four Army comrades. On Staff at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Screenwriting program, Mr. Upham has taught screenwriting at San Francisco State University, filmmaking at the San Francisco Film Society, and was Artist in Residence at MVLA Academy.