TheoEco’s Lucky-7 Anniversary

TheoEco Institute is celebrating its seven-year anniversary this month. 

​TheoEco was incorporated on August 10, 2015 when then 15-year-old daughter Bobbie and I were getting ready to head to Nepal to help with the earthquake recovery effort. We weren’t exactly sure how but thanks to the introductions to Rev. Shyam Nepali, his son Amit, and the rest of their family/Christian community there, we figured it out. 

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​With Amit editing, writing music, guiding, and translating we could document what was going on. And that’s what we are doing still. He, like Bobbie, is also a director of the company.

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​​The three of us have teamed up on every project since including five (or six?) documentaries (and related posts) from earthquake relief to climate change, from guns to Ukraine. In the end though it is always about economic and environmental (human made as well) entanglements we find urgent. 

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​And a Quixotic hopefulness that keeps us thinking we might change the world just a bit.

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​Not that seven is a particularly momentous number but we couldn’t do it on number five because of COVID. I can remember Bobbie and me in Kathmandu filming Piles of Bricks (Revisited) for release on the fifth anniversary of the earthquakes in 2020. There was this ongoing story in the Kathmandu press about this new virus in a place named Wuhan just over the Himalayas to the north. That film was the earliest victim of the pandemic for TheoEco.

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​The next TheoEco COVID victim was So Flo Floods which had just premiered and being screened across South Florida when the virus struck. We had just finished a 57-minute version and were planning a big splash at Miami Beach Senior High for the winner of our So Floods Essay Competition. Alas, it went virtual, as all things did as we still tried to get our arms around what the virus meant. I still remember naively thinking that we might still be able to hold the screenings we were booking in the summer of 2020. It was then a question of survival for TheoEco.

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​But survive we have. And it is now time to thrive!

First and foremost, right now is Trek to Bucha. We are finishing the film and beginning its promotion at our Boston premiere on 9/11.

​It is imperative that we get this film out and seen by as many folks as possible in as expedited a distribution model as we can. People throughout the world need to see these stories now, so say the Ukrainian leaders I speak with like Fr. Yaroslav at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Boston (pictured) to remind people what is going on and why our support is so important.

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We are holding a fundraising campaign through September 30th to raise $23,000 - the final third of Trek to Bucha’s $68,000 budget.

We need funds specifically for PBS News Hour footage we plan to include, music rights and mixing, further editing, promoting, etc. For more about the budget click here.

Join us and support TheoEco and Ukraine.

We are raising funds to help cover the remaining $23,000 estimated price tag of Trek to Bucha’s post-production and initial promotional costs.

Won’t you help? Help us finish Trek to Bucha, assist Ukraine, and propel TheoEco into its next seven years. It’s easy. Just click on the "Donate Now" button below.

​You’ll find a variety of donation levels each with a range of reward packages including credits in the film! We promise every dollar will be put to good use. And please plan to join us on September 11th either in person or virtually. For more information click here.