STEVE RICHARDS
Steve Richards is co-founder and managing director of the TheoEco Institute. A producer/director of socially conscious documentaries and research, he's an environmentalist at heart and particularly interested in the intersection of economics, the ecology, and theologies.
Most recently Steve has directed three documentaries about Ukraine including 2022's Trek to Bucha and 2023's Back to Bucha. His third entitled Beyond Bucha is currently in its impact campaign. He was filming in Ukraine from September 19, 2024 through October 23, visiting Kyiv, Bucha, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Vinnytsia.
He and his daughter Bobbie Richards produced TheoEco’s first feature-length documentary “Piles of Bricks,” a film about the April 2015 earthquakes in Nepal and the following recovery efforts.
Steve was born in Camden, New Jersey, raised in Miami, Florida, and spent decades in finance in New England before finding his more missionary side in 2010 via environmentalist leanings and a quixotic attempt to discern the role the Spirit plays in the world's economic activities. He finished his first study, Economics in the Gospels while studying theology and economics at Yale University in 2014.
Richards founded the TheoEco Institute in 2015, a non-profit concerned with documenting, assisting, and researching those entangled in environmental and economic predicaments. Documentaries are a big part of TheoEco's focus, as are its connections with Nepal and the 2015 earthquakes there.
Contact him at [email protected].
Most recently Steve has directed three documentaries about Ukraine including 2022's Trek to Bucha and 2023's Back to Bucha. His third entitled Beyond Bucha is currently in its impact campaign. He was filming in Ukraine from September 19, 2024 through October 23, visiting Kyiv, Bucha, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Vinnytsia.
He and his daughter Bobbie Richards produced TheoEco’s first feature-length documentary “Piles of Bricks,” a film about the April 2015 earthquakes in Nepal and the following recovery efforts.
Steve was born in Camden, New Jersey, raised in Miami, Florida, and spent decades in finance in New England before finding his more missionary side in 2010 via environmentalist leanings and a quixotic attempt to discern the role the Spirit plays in the world's economic activities. He finished his first study, Economics in the Gospels while studying theology and economics at Yale University in 2014.
Richards founded the TheoEco Institute in 2015, a non-profit concerned with documenting, assisting, and researching those entangled in environmental and economic predicaments. Documentaries are a big part of TheoEco's focus, as are its connections with Nepal and the 2015 earthquakes there.
Contact him at [email protected].
For Steve Richards' CV click here.
Filmography
Beyond Bucha
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"Beyond Bucha" is the third film in the “Trek to Bucha” series...It began with the original film shot in April 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion. 2023’s follow-up, “Back to Bucha,” continues to impact audiences with its ongoing American outreach campaign. The new film continues to document Ukraine’s resilience by focusing on Evangelical pastors and their flocks in Kyiv, Bucha, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa.
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Back to Bucha
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In January 2023, filmmaker Steve Richards traveled to Ukraine to film "Back to Bucha," his sequel about the Ukrainian war. His initial documentary, "Trek to Bucha," was produced in the early stages of the conflict, during March and April 2022. "Back to Bucha" returns to the individuals Richards encountered in his first visit, along with additional clergy and others. The film highlights women and their children who have returned to rebuild their lives in their own homes and country. It also presents the viewpoints of leaders from Ukraine's varied religious communities and the nation's youth.
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One month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, guerrilla documentarian Steve Richards embarked on a month-long odyssey to collect stories from a town besieged by Russian tanks, snipers, and unimaginable horrors. This town, marked by homes pockmarked with shell damage, ruined businesses, and widespread unemployment, bears the scars of relentless artillery fire. These are the stories of ordinary people, like ourselves, thrust into a conflict they never foresaw, in a beloved town within a nation that found unity amidst adversity. 'Trek to Bucha' chronicles their tale.
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So FLo FLoods
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A feature-length documentary that tells the story of flooding in South Florida—flooding that has happened in the past, is happening now, and will continue to happen in the future.
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Piles of Bricks
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TheoEco’s mini-documentary series featuring some of the hardest hit areas of Kathmandu from the 2015 earthquakes, the rebuilding efforts, and the people affected.
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The Flourishing Kathmandu Church
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This feature-length documentary goes to Nepal to see how the Christian minority prays, lives, survives, and even thrives, where Hindus & Buddhists dominate.
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Piles of Bricks (Revisited)
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The follow-up to TheoEco's mini-documentary collection: Piles of Bricks, the new film shines light on the rebuilding efforts following Nepal's devastating earthquakes in April and May of 2015.
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A somewhat iconoclastic 10-class treatment of the Economics in the Gospels study. It tunes down the theological in favor of focusing an economics and historical lens on the accounts of the Gospels.
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Research/Publications
Book
Economics in the Gospels – A study of the economic activity in the first four books of the New Testament (Available on Amazon)
Economics in the Gospels – A study of the economic activity in the first four books of the New Testament (Available on Amazon)
Essays
The Trinity and the Invisible Hand – A tongue-in-cheek look at when God gave mankind Capitalism
If Jesus Walked Into Ferguson Today - A missive on Jesus's take on the Ferguson episode
Gospels on Ferguson – A study related to what the Gospels have to say on Ferguson
My New Church - The NRA? - A look at the "religion" of the 2nd Amendment
My New Church - The NkRA? - An updated look at the "religion" of the 2nd Amendment
Jesus Loves Capitalists Too, I'm Sure – An essay on capitalists and what Jesus might have had to say about us
The Trinity and the Invisible Hand – A tongue-in-cheek look at when God gave mankind Capitalism
If Jesus Walked Into Ferguson Today - A missive on Jesus's take on the Ferguson episode
Gospels on Ferguson – A study related to what the Gospels have to say on Ferguson
My New Church - The NRA? - A look at the "religion" of the 2nd Amendment
My New Church - The NkRA? - An updated look at the "religion" of the 2nd Amendment
Jesus Loves Capitalists Too, I'm Sure – An essay on capitalists and what Jesus might have had to say about us