My name is Collis Ta'eed. That's me interviewing the Baha'i architect John Brogan at his home for a short piece titled "Coming Home". I love stories, I love grassroots initiatives, and I enjoy backing others. Learn more about some of my projects here, or watch the piece about John!
That's me!
In Guns We Trust
I helped two friends of mine, Josh and Naysan, create a documentary exploring America’s relationship with guns. For me, it’s a film about being open, empathetic to different perspectives, and building bridges, even when topics are fractious. We've also developed our own release playbook which I'm excited about!
Local stories. Screened together.
Big Fam is a new idea I'm exploring. It's a film festival where local filmmakers make short documentaries about real people in their communities, then bring those communities together to watch. It’s about giving stories of care, connection and common ground more airtime. Our first edition is arriving in 2027.
Grassroots
Storytelling
Club
An open collaborative project with storytellers in grassroots settings around Australia and the Pacific exploring how to use film to advance their communities.
This is Cyan!
She's mentioned in lots of bits above, and I have this amazing photo of her to show off (thanks to the talented Louie Fordham). Cyan is a lot of things, including my wife (what a coup), she's also a writer, creative, dog whisperer (like literally I find her whispering sweet nothings to our dogs), and she thrashes me at Scrabble much to my chagrin.
Together with Cyan, I started a charitable trust called Bright Moon. We offer early-stage philanthropic funding for First Nations social change agents across Northern Australia. I work as one of three Development Partners supporting some thirty organisations in the Torres Strait, the Kimberley, and the Northern Territory.
Baha'i Inspired Media
Baha'i Blog is an independent initiative for Australian Baha’is and friends to connect with personal stories, inspiration, arts and media about the Baha’i Faith, its ideals and transformational impact. I produce videos and support the project in the background!
Stories from Sydney’s Baha'i House of Worship.
Recently I've been working on a project to create film, visual identity and other media to connect hearts with our beautiful House of Worship in Mona Vale. You can see some of the visual media in our House of Worship Playlist on YouTube. The program of work is coinciding with a project to beautify, restore and evolve this centre of the community. Here's a film I worked on, with a very talented filmmaker named Armin Awan (that's Armin in the photo on the Big Fam panel!).
Emerging from Obscurity
Watch the Film
Early Empowerment
I am passionate about all kids having access to great learning experiences that emphasise empowerment, social and emotional wellbeing, and spiritual principles. I work with and support two wonderful projects.
Climate Investing
I am the one-time cofounder of Envato. After our exit, Cyan and I set about creating an impact investment thesis that is focused on climate impact. One part of that is the occasional early stage angel investment, here's a few:
That's it! I'll leave you with a cute photo of one of my dogs. This is Mickey, aka Mixtape, aka Mickeymoo, one of two dogs in our household. She's an anxious girl, but a very loving one. She also shouldn't be putting her face on the dining table, but it was so adorable I took a photo before telling her off :)