Almost five years in the making, Piles of Bricks (Revisited) documents Nepal’s rebuilding efforts from late 2015 to present.

A proper premiere is not possible under current conditions, but we surely can stream it instead - as planned – today, Saturday April 25th 2020 at 8 PM from Kathmandu (10:15 AM in NYC) when producer Amit Nepali will stream it directly from Jubal Studio in Lalitpur.

At just under an hour and 30 minutes the film is still finalizing cuts, reviewing captions, and adding titles and voiceovers. But virus or not we were determined to get this film out for the people of Nepal on the quakes’ 5th anniversary - and so we are.

Be part of this and share with your friends. It may prove a gracious diversion as we keep our distance, wash our hands, and pull together with others worldwide, especially those still very much struggling in Nepal. They have come through so much – and are dealing with the Coronavirus like the rest of us - indoors. Something we all have in common it appears.

To join the event, which includes and introduction an Q&A with the producers please go to our event page where we broadcast the film via Facebook Live at 8 PM Kathmandu time. To go to the Event Page click here.

Additionally, we are making replays of the screening available through the rest of April as a remembrance and celebration of all those that have suffered and continue to persevere in Nepal.

Please go to PilesOfBricks.com for more.

Part of our four-part blog series Piles of Bricks’ Priests: The Hindu, the Anglican, and the Ex-Shaman in which we talk about the film through the eyes of the priests in the film in their non-clerical roles  - as survivors of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. We are looking forward to introducing Pastor Lilam and his inspiring story in our upcoming Piles of Bricks (Revisited) being streamed for the first time on Saturday, April 25th from Lalitpur at 6 PM, and again that evening at 8 PM NYC time.
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By Steve Richards

​We first meet up with the Pastor in our mini-documentary Piles of Bricks – Villages shot in 2015 when we treked to Gorkha, the epicenter of the earthquake. Using a combination of vans, 4WD vehicles, and leg power, we survey damage in his village ranging from cracks to cave-ins. 

The film, shot in the midst of the fuel shortage caused by the Indian blockade, we see long lines queued up for petrol, packed buses with passengers riding on the roof, and commercial trucks giving passengers a ride at no charge. 

In 2015 the pastor was not expecting much from the government. By the end of the film we are pleasantly surprised that he had received his promised three Lakh (300,000 rupees, or about $3,000) from the government and was much recovered. This is not a universal story amongst the villagers we talked with including those in Lele and Harisiddhi. 

By Steve Richards

Happy Easter!
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I thought long and hard about intruding upon your Easter, but I am hopeful we can add a bit of Easter spirit to what is a deep feeling of loss today for so many of us. An Easter without fellowship is unmooring. So, with all this misery (which I imagine is much closer to what the disciples felt that first Easter morning) let us see if we can brighten the load a little.

Meet Pastor Amosh Shahi, an Anglican pastor in Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal.

​We first met Amosh through Rev. Shyam Nepali and son Amit just six months after the quakes. We brought him to our watchers in two of the original Piles of Bricks mini-documentaries, one of which is especially poignant this morning: Sunday School on Saturdays. This is a 10-minute condensation of a three-hour (typical for Nepali Christians) service we shot  in October 2015 in the same church they were gathered in that fateful Saturday in April. When the quakes hit – they were thankfully all together in their church. Saturday is the day of services in Nepal and many, including the pastors, knew their homes were trashed and would not be sleeping in their own beds that night.

Part of our four-part blog series Piles of Bricks’ Priests: The Hindu, the Anglican, and the Ex-Shaman in which we talk about the film through the eyes of the priests in the film in their non-clerical roles  - as earthquake survivors. Please excuse our presumption in sending these blogs at this difficult time. We understand the situation we all find ourselves in all over the world, and hope our blog, and the approaching April 25th anniversary of the 2015 Nepal quake. might offer a bit of some welcome distraction.

By Steve Richards

Meet Susan Kapali, 9th Priest of Bhimsen Temple, Patan Durbar Square. We are looking forward to introducing him and his temple in our upcoming Piles of Bricks (Revisited)  being streamed for the first time on Saturday, April 25th from Lalitpur at 6 PM, and again that evening at 8 PM NYC time.

We first met Susan through Amit Nepali and in Dec 2016 as we were back for Christmas after our initial Nepal Project in 2015. He doesn’t strike you as a priest upon first meeting – but then he was the first Hindu priest I ever met. In fact, it wasn’t until I knew him some time that I found out he comes from a very long line of Hindu priests who serve as clerics for the monument which anchors the northern end of Patan Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is not available to tourists and is an active temple even as it undergoes a complete renovation. The temple was built in 1680 and is Susan’s home.

TheoEco is all about the intersection of economics and theology and rarely is there a coming together of the two as we find with Bhimsen Temple. You see Patan Durbar Sq. is the ancient center of Patan (Lalitpur), formerly a kingdom unto its own as was Kathmandu (and Bhaktapur) until they were unified by the great Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah in the 18th century.

By Steve Richards

Piles of Bricks (Revisited)  features a lot of priests. But in their non-clerical roles  - as earthquake survivors. So, we thought we would introduce you to a few:

• The Hindu – Susan Kapali, 9th Priest of Bhimsen Temple, Patan Durbar Square. We first met Susan in Dec 2016 and he gave us a tour of his temple. Wait ‘til you see it now.
• The Anglican - Ps. Amosh Shahi, Lalitpur. We met Amosh on our first trip in 2015 and have followed his journey from homeless survivor to new home. A wonderful story of pooling resources with family members – a lesson we find repeated over and over in our research. A useful reminder for all as we face unprecedented economic challenges in our own economic outlook in the USA.
• The Ex-Shaman - Ps. Lilam Bahadur Rana Magar, Gorkha. Perhaps the most intriguing for folks that have grown up in American Christendom is the example of Pastor Lilam in Gorkha, ground zero of the 2015 quakes. He is a former shaman/witchdoctor who converted to Christianity when his spells no longer worked, once upon a time.

All these folks were brought into our orbit by Amit Nepali who also edits our films so we are assured that what we present is both appropriate and something Nepalis can be proud of.

We have never personally witnessed divisions between the religions in Hindu dominated Nepal, but at a political level it exists in profound ways. Ways that we in the west really can’t quite appreciate. Imagine being a Christian, especially one on the more evangelical end of the spectrum, and not being able to covert a newcomer to the faith. That’s what freedom of religion in Nepal means: you can practice whatever religion you want but the constitution explicitly states that you cannot convert folks from other religions. Various rationales exist for this, but they are largely political with economic undertones. It is also historical in that, until very recently, Nepal’s leaders were proud of its unique status as a Hindu Kingdom. Interestingly, the aristocracy is gone, the Maoists are in, and Hindus still rule within this new democracy.

The official Piles of Bricks (Revisited) poster is ready!

Shot from a Lele rooftop two months ago it encapsulates so much, starting with the sun breaking onto the Kathmandu Valley. We see piles of bricks, rebuilt (and rebuilding) homes, and people working – always working. It shows the progress in a picture worth at least a thousand words, but only a couple hundred today.

Instead, we’ll let the image speak for itself and invite you to see where Lele and the other villages we documented in 2015 are today by joining us for the streaming/screening event of Piles of Bricks (Revisited) on April 25th - the five year anniversary of the quakes. And to see what we found in Lele in 2015 take a look at our original Piles of Bricks mini-documentary Villages click here.

If you would like a copy of the digital poster for your very own it is available only to those that pledge $10 or more to the Piles of Bricks (Revisited) Kickstarter campaign. Click here to make a contribution to the cause and get this awesome momento, a ticket to the April 25th streaming event, and more!

April 25th is coming - virus or no virus - and one way or another the movie will be screened on the 25th from Kathmandu! For more about the screening/streaming event click here. 

​Please co to PilesofBricks.com for more. Thanks!

Let’s go viral while keeping our distance on this worldwide update/remembrance of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake - Exactly 5 years to the day.

Yes, we know both Kathmandu and NYC are currently locked down. We also know that April 25th is a month away, which is an awfully long time to stay locked down. Either way we will be streaming the film in a virtual premiere on the 5-year anniversary of the 2015 Nepal earthquake with the film’s director, producers and quake survivors online.

Piles of Bricks (Revisited) is a new documentary about the earthquake rebuilding efforts, and is scheduled for release on the Nepal megaquake’s 5-year anniversary: April 25, 2020. Five years in the making it provides an update on how things are going now five years later and tries to shed a light on the question: Where’s the $4 billion the world promised back in 2015?

To see the trailer click here.

We are committed to screening the film on April 25 as we expect worldwide publicity to mark the five-year anniversary. Unfortunately, a proper premiere is not possible under current conditions, but we surely can stream it instead - as planned - on April 25th at 6 PM from Kathmandu when producer Amit Nepali will stream it directly from Jubal Studios in Lalitpur. And if we get lucky, perhaps people can organize in small groups and watch at a socially safe distance. Same thing in NYC with  a second streaming of the film at 8 PM NYC time. Both screenings will include an introduction and Q&A afterwards from the filmmakers and our brothers and sisters in the film. This is a fluid situation so please stay tuned.

The event will be available for a $5 contribution to the Piles of Bricks (Revisited) Kickstarter campaign which is raising funds for the completion and marketing of the film. ​Click here for our campaign and secure your ticket! There are many other reward levels so check them out and make a pledge. Or, if you would like to just buy a ticket from our website click here.
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​Be part of this and share with your friends. It may prove a gracious diversion as we keep our distance, wash our hands, and pull together with others worldwide, especially those still very much struggling in Nepal. They are about to be reminded as we approach April 25th about all they have come through - while bracing for the next stinker their environment throws at them – like the Coronavirus. Something we all have in common it appears.
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​Go to PilesOfBricks.com for more.

So many 5’s right? Well for those of you expecting something about your favorite TV show, sorry for any disappointment. But please read on! And if you are bored start counting the fives (Answer at the end). Obviously, this is a trying time for most of us and folks are hunkering down all over the world. Hopefully we can provide an opportunity for you to take part in something outside the walls we are behind.

My daughter Bobbie and I were in Kathmandu last month as the Coronavirus was developing just over Nepal’s northern border in China. We were there shooting footage for our upcoming film Piles of Bricks (Revisited) a new documentary about the earthquake rebuilding efforts scheduled for release on the Nepal megaquake’s 5-year anniversary: April 25, 2020. A film five years in the making it provides an update on how things are going now five years later and tries to shed a light on the question: Where’s the $4 billion the world promised back in 2015?

Turns out that March 2020 is also TheoEco’s 5-year anniversary. We have put out several documentaries and assisted those we have met along the way, we became a 501(c)(3), put together an awesome board of directors, provided a job or two, worked with schools and churches, etc. Our website TheoEco.org gives a pretty good idea of all that we are doing.

We are going to use our anniversary as an opportunity to raise funds the good old-fashioned way: beseeching for the cause. To that end I invite you to participate in the Kickstarter campaign we are launching to raise funds for the completion and marketing of Piles of Bricks (Revisited).
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If you are new to Kickstarter it is the most respected crowdfunding platform out there and projects must pass rigorous criteria to be part of their community. Their projects are “all or nothing” meaning that no pledged monies are collected unless we raise the entire $9,500 by April 20th.

Here are some more 5’s for you:

By Steve Richards

​A month gone already? Seems like we just got here – and our blog is woefully behind. But we have SOOO much awesome 4K footage for our upcoming: Piles of Bricks (Revisited) our look at Nepal’s 2015 earthquake recovery efforts five years later.

What’d we do?
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• Documented earthquake recovery, rebuilding, and other development efforts in Kathmandu and the surrounding Kathmandu Valley.
• Interviewed villagers that we first interviewed in the fall of 2015.
• Talked with the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust’s Raju Roka.
• Toured Patan Durbar Square and went deep inside a Hindu temple being rebuilt from the top down - and bottom up  - with Hindu priest Susan Kapali.
• Documented home rebuilding, hi-rise reconstruction, road construction, river re-engineering, etc.
• Furthered the production of Nepal’s Water, our upcoming film about the water crisis afflicting Kathmandu, hydropower projects, sacred uses of water by various religious communities, and the impact of climate change.
• Worked with new students and delivered new equipment at the National Theological College (NTC).
• Launched our ten-part online course based upon Economics in the Gospels at the NTC.
• Began shooting and editing in 4K with the delivery of new equipment to Amit Nepali’s Jubal Studios.

By Steve Richards

​Is there a lovelier place to be than Kathmandu in January? The picture of the cool drink in the plentiful sunshine with UNESCO site Patan Durbar Square’s temples in the background speaks for itself, right?

​We thought we would offer something light as we begin documenting the five-year anniversary of the April 2015 Nepal Earthquake. There is unfortunately - though not unexpectedly - much on the opposite side of things to present as we shoot Piles of Bricks (Revisited). There are few tourists around right now. It’s a bit chilly with low 40’s at night and high 50’s during the day. The drink? Just an iced tea – regular iced tea – Nepali style. That our server dressed it up in such accoutrements demonstrates a bit of the spirit of the folks here five years after the mega-quakes killed thousands and destroyed untold thousands of buildings on April 25, 2015.