The Bible Runner • A Tale of Commitment, A Question of Choice

Following in the footsteps of his fascinating look into the competitive challenges of professional ballet with the recent world premier of Prima, filmmaker Luka Dziubyna is now poised to release perhaps his most powerful documentary to date with a premier screening of The Bible Runner set for 7:00 PM on Friday, August 8^th at Bay City’s State Theatre.

Peaceful Pro-life missionary Cal Zastrow has been a voice for the unborn for over 35 years. He was recently sentenced to 6 months in Prison and before showing up to serve his sentence was also facing a possible additional 11 years under the Biden administration. This documentary follows Cal and pro-life Christians as they battle against the modern-day American Abortion holocaust while having their faith challenged and affirmed at each step of their journey.

“This film is essentially a personality piece about Cal Zastrow, who has been the largest anti-abortionist in Michigan. He and his whole family are involved in this. His dad was also a minister, and he possesses a truly remarkable faith, explains Dziubyna. 

“I got wind of him when one of the people I work security with was going to the Ukraine during the whole crisis against Russia. Cal was going out and had risked his life multiple times smuggling Bibles into China, along with other places rife with religious censorship.   He's about getting the word out and one of the things I really wanted to touch upon is the fact that out of all the hardcore Rappers I know and people I've met on death row, Cal has been arrested more times than all of them, you know?”

“When I started doing this documentary I didn't know when it would finish, because at the time I started filming it was roughly three months before Cal had to show up to prison to do a six-month sentence for protesting outside of abortion clinics. He’s been arrested multiple times for just standing outside of a building, basically. During that time a new trial was supposed to start that could have put him in prison for up to 11 years, so I didn’t know if there would be an end to this film.”

The basis for his arrests stems from a 1994 US federal law enacted in 1994 during the Clinton administration called The FACE Act, or the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which protects access to reproductive health clinics and places of religious worship by prohibiting violence, threats, and obstruction aimed at interfering with those seeking or providing services at these locations.

“During these protests I never witnessed any obstruction, mainly they were handing out information for people to read like Biblical texts, things Jesus had said,  but each state interprets these laws differently,” continues Luka.  “Basically, I wanted to film this person who is doing something that I think is remarkable. I think most people aren't as involved in their faith. They may have opinions about things, but they're sort of what I call Cafeteria Catholics, you know? They talk about the sanctity of life, but then they don't really live what they believe as far as that goes.”

In many ways Zastrow is no different than Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan, who was a famous anti-war activist and Christian pacifist whose protests against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admiration. He was also arrested multiple times and sentenced to prison for destruction of government property and was listed on the FBI’s ‘most wanted list’ after flight to avoid imprisonment.

“Cal is one of 23 people that have gotten pardoned by President Trump,” continues Luka, so his six-month sentence ended up becoming roughly four-and-a-half months. This had nothing to do with the January 6^th pardons, but he got out early and his experience in prison reignited his faith in how much he needs to do even more,  Regardless of how people feel or don't feel about abortion, I think a lot of people are un-informed or misinformed about the procedures of abortions, and I know that to be true just with doing my own research. What I basically have found on that topic I also plan on showing people in the film.”

“I think it’s a shocking fact over 130,000 after 2^nd Trimester abortions that we know of have been performed just in 2024, and that literally requires a doctor to go in there and rip apart each fetus limb-by -limb and then crush the skull.  I plan on showing that in this film, so I don't make films for the general public, I can't even release them anywhere, which is why I'm building my own platform now for all of my films, so I don't have to worry about that.”

“It’s pretty sad that's the way it's gotten,” reflects Dziubyna.  “I came to America and remember my Dad saying to me before he passed, ‘We came here to get away from socialism and communism and everything, but it looks like it followed us here, too. It’s literally one of the reasons I'm moving to South America, because I feel like there are more freedoms as far as speech goes right now in Brazil than there are here in the United States, and ten years ago that was almost unthinkable.”

“I think so many people fail to realize that when you give the government ultimate power to basically deem who is fit or unfit to live, you almost go back to that Eugenic sort of ideology, which is fine and dandy so long as somebody in power deems you to be healthy; but once somebody comes to power that doesn't, you've just set up a standard whereby you yourself can be persecuted for that. So it's a very easy transition for a society to get to that point.”

In terms of Zastow’s core message, Luka says his position is simple.

“His main message is that Jesus forgives people’s sins and that’s the only way to heaven. Why would you not want to share that message with the world? So he looks at it as a personal responsibility to do that, and unlike somebody sending some organization fifty bucks a month where eight dollars go to the cause, Cal puts his money where his mouth is. He is literally out there traveling all the time. To do that and have been doing it for the last 35-years I find incredibly admirable. Goodness emanates off him. I’ve met religious people from all different walks of life and different faiths, but Cal is always extremely welcoming and will have a conversation with anybody.”

“Through the process of making this film, I’ve found out in some countries if you have Down syndrome you’re forced to get an abortion,” states Luka. “I had no idea because in parts of Europe you never see people with Down syndrome, so I think Europeans are going to look at it a little bit differently than the way parts of the Middle East do, which is like the shame of the family and the reason God is punishing them, which is why they have a child who's special needs. My youngest sister is actually specials needs, so to not give people the option of keeping the child is wrong. I believe people should have a choice because they have to live with the consequences.”

“One girl I knew had seven abortions and eventually met a guy and they tried having a kid, but after two years he found out somehow that she had seven abortions and wasn’t able to get pregnant anymore, so he divorced her and she ended up committing suicide.”

“I’ve talked to so many people that have gone through abortions and they will all tell you it’s changed them, even if they have three or four other kids,”  he concludes. “I think because of that their viewpoint is that life begins at conception, while a lot of the views of different societies are trying to denigrate that as much as possible by calling fetuses nothing but a clump of cells; but when you think about it, aren’t you and I also nothing but a clump of cells?”

“Throughout your whole life we end up in different places, so I hope people are open to coming and seeing a film about this person. Whether they agree or disagree with abortion, or are open to seeing somebody who is committed to his beliefs, working with Cal has made me re-evaluate what my own beliefs are, and it’s very seldom when you work with somebody close enough they make you change your belief systems - not because they’re questioning you, but just because of the example they set by standing behind their own beliefs.” 

“I feel I’m a better person and better off having worked with him.”

The world premier of ‘The Bible Runner’ (One Man’s Fight to Save the Unborn) will be shown on Friday, August 8^th at 7:00 PM at The State Theatre, 913 Washington Ave., Bay City. Tickets are $20.00 and available online at https://statetheatrebaycity.simpletix.com/

Watch the trailer here