In 2009, with seventeen years of acquisitions, distribution, and sales experience, I conceived of The Film Collaborative because I was sick of the layers of middlemen standing in between filmmakers and the revenues they deserved but were often not receiving. I was further bothered by the wasted money and inefficiency, to say nothing of greed and cheating. Money on layers of business-to-business marketing that could go to reaching audiences and consumers. And frankly, the old model of giving up rights never made any sense to me. So I wanted to find a way to work with film based on a service model in which my team could get paid for our time, experience, and work, but not be given ownership and control of a film. It was out of this feeling of frustration and commitment to fairness that TFC was born. We’re non-profit, on purpose, and we truly believe in and stand by our two taglines: “filmmakers first.” and “we don't own your rights…you do!”

THE FILM COLLABORATIVE is the first nonprofit focused on distribution-education. TFC educates filmmakers about and helps filmmakers with all aspects of distribution without taking rights. TFC believes in and stands by our three taglines: “filmmakers first.”, “nonprofit, on purpose”, and “we don't own your rights…you do!”