Us Weekly was not represented on the news media line, but The National Catholic Register and Movieguide were. “This is like ‘All The President’s Men’ journalism before so much of it was doubted and before there were so many different journalists writing for so many different media,” said Jon Gunn, the movie’s director, of his protagonist’s search for answers. “Back when people had notebooks and pens and spoke face to face.”

But the film’s character connects to modern opinions of the news media, too, he said. Mr. Strobel’s character “is a skeptic who says he’s being evenhanded and unbiased but he’s looking to debunk Christianity so he’s not as unbiased as he should be.”

Mr. and Ms. White sidled up to Mr. Gunn and his wife, Lisa, to say hello. Mr. Gunn and Mr. White have known each other for years. Mr. White starred along with Eric Roberts in 2000’s “Mercy Streets,” Mr. Gunn’s first feature film, in which Ms. Gunn, an actress, also had a role.

“I got to make out with his wife for ‘Mercy Streets,’” Mr. White said with a big laugh.

Mr. Gunn said, “Andrea and I are still waiting for our turn.”

“Oh, it’s getting chilly in here,” Mr. White said. Ms. White, who met her husband at a church in Malibu, Calif., when she had blond dreadlocks and was working as a personal trainer, rolled her eyes. “I’ve never been a rainbow-and-unicorn Christian,” she said later.

The world of faith-based entertainment feels small and interconnected in this way. Eamonn McCrystal is an Irish tenor whose music career is managed by Elizabeth Travis, the country singer Randy Travis’s ex-wife and ex-manager who is also a Pure Flix partner. Mr. McCrystal, who played an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pure Flix’s “God’s Not Dead 2,” strolled amid the friends and family of the film’s cast and crew as Ms. Travis walked the red carpet. He carried a cellphone in a leather case that made it look like a little Bible. “Oh, you’re the one that Donald Trump hates,” he said after meeting a reporter for The New York Times.