Filmmaker Will Fraser writes: I first met Tri Robinson at the end of 2010 when he visited England, where I live, from his home in Idaho. We discussed the problem that environmentalism had become an issue supported on the left and opposed on the right. Many Christians, particularly in the USA, oppose environmental action. We both felt this issue was not addressed properly, and that a documentary needed to be made to present environmentalism in a way that would resonate with conservative Christians. I feel that Tri is the best person to front a documentary aimed at American Christians because he combines being the founding pastor of a large evangelical church with being a highly skilled homesteader in the western tradition. America’s mythology of itself includes the western hero, who among other things is a natural environmentalist whose moral code, laid out in numerous western films and also with much basis in reality, is not to take more than they need. Now, more than ever before, we need this frugality: not to take more than we need.

It took another five years before Tri and I were able to shoot our documentary in May 2015. We had no funding other than the support of our small but generous band of crowdfunders, so we had a small crew and I had to edit the film by myself; editing took a long time, and the final stages of post-production were done largely by volunteers. But while the process of making the film could be laborious, we were driven forward by our commitment to the project. Despite a lack of resources we managed to produce a film of great quality. To cite just one example, the magnificent musical score by Richard Quesnel is worth particular mention – through the dedication of the musicians and technicians the total cost for composing, performing, recording, editing and mastering the musical score was zero. Yet in its quality and vision the music is priceless.

Once completed, Cowboy and Preacher then had its festival premiere in Hollywood at Dances with Films in 2018. In 2020 it was released on DVD and for streaming on Amazon, and also had broadcasts on small specialist channels in the UK, Netherlands and South Africa. In 2025 it was broadcast nationally across the USA on PBS World.

Thank you especially to our three partners who came forward to underwrite the broadcast of this film – the Evangelical Environmental Network, Timber Butte Homestead and Viridio, a solar-powered cloud provider.

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Will Fraser