Cinematic arts professor films documentary about Barnabas’ lesser-known life, ministry

After working seven years to bring the idea to the screen, Stuart Bennett, a professor in Liberty University’s Cinematic Arts, Zaki Gordon Center, has completed a documentary that deep dives into the life and ministry of the apostle Barnabas in the New Testament. The film, “Barnabas and Paul: A Friendship that Rocked the Roman World,” chronicles the tremendous, but often unknown, impact Barnabas had on the early Church.

The film was co-produced by Bennett’s production company, Lachlan Films, and the Christian History Institute.

“I love to make films about stories that we think we know, and yet, when we start to look at them a little harder, we find out that everything isn’t as it seems. That’s the way it is with the story of Barnabas,” Bennett said. “Barnabas is somebody who’s very often referred to as just being ‘Paul’s helper,’ but when we get into the story, that’s not the case.”

Although Bennett describes Barnabas as relatively unknown in some Christian circles, he said he’s a true apostle martyred for his faith who, like John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus Christ, created a platform for Paul’s future ministry. Bennett said his film proposes two questions: what would Christianity look like today if there’d been no Barnabas? And why did the disciples trust Barnabas and listen to him?

“One of the things we have to realize is that, after Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, he was still greatly feared, and people didn’t know whether to trust him or not,” Bennett said. “It was Barnabas who listened to him and realized that this man had had a genuine conversion, and so it was Barnabas who vouched for Paul to the disciples of Jerusalem. Barnabas was one of the 70 men who were appointed in Acts; he had made his mark with the church in Jerusalem to become known as such a man of integrity that when he spoke, the apostles realized they needed to listen.”

The film explores the most credible facts about Barnabas’ life by investigating religious traditions, meeting with historical and biblical experts, and visiting many of the sites in Turkey and Cyprus important to his story.

“The locations that we went to are the exact original locations that you read about in the New Testament,” Bennett said. “For example, when we’re filming on the Roman Road, it’s exactly in the same places that Paul and Barnabas walked.”

The dramatizations for the documentary and other footage overseas were done in the summer of 2023. Cinematic arts professor Doug Miller served as the film’s director of photography, digital media & journalism graduate Brent Tyrrell (’23) was the 2nd camera operator, and the audio for the film was done by sound design graduate Russell McMurtrie (’23)

After forming the idea for the film, Bennett knew his next step was to engage in research, and he received a grant from Liberty’s Office of Sponsored Programs & Research to hire a research assistant, Emily James (’22), who was a sophomore in the cinematic arts program at the time. She worked from March to August in 2020.

“I’d known Professor Bennett since my freshman year, and I was in his CINE 101 (Introduction to Film) class when he said that he was working on this film about Barnabas and looking for a student research assistant,” James said. “Right when I started on it, (the COVID-19 pandemic) started and students were sent home, so I worked on it remotely at home, and I would check in with Professor Bennett once a week.”

James attested to the challenges of researching little-known information about Barnabas.

“There’s so much published about Paul, but there’s not as much on Barnabas,” she said. “Professor Bennett recommended I start with the early Church fathers, so I was reading a lot of Tertullian and others and looking for references to Barnabas. It was a lot of following footnotes. We dove into different hypotheticals and rabbit holes, some of which we’ll never know the answers to for sure.”

James said the experience helped her realize that filmmaking, both in narrative and documentary format, has a need for quality research and the ability to formulate it well onscreen.

“In all storytelling, there is some aspect of research, and this position helped me develop skills in finding sources, organizing information, and synthesizing it in a way you can visualize,” she said.

A screening of “Barnabas and Paul: A Friendship that Rocked the Roman World” will be open to the public on Friday, Sept. 6, at 6:30 p.m. in the university-owned theater inside the Get Air Trampoline Park in nearby Candlers Station Shopping Center. Following the film, there will be a Q&A session with Bennett and others who helped make the film.

The film is currently being pitched by its distributor to streaming services and television companies. (View the trailer.)