2019 · Kennedy Space Center
The Eagle Has Landed
The bronze 50th-anniversary monument to Apollo 11 — proposed and produced by Barber, unveiled July 12, 2019, and underwritten by Rocket Mortgage.
- George & Mark Lundeen
- Joey Bainer
- Rocket Mortgage
Vanilla Fire Productions · Santa Monica, CA · Est. 2006
Stories told in fire. Heroes cast in bronze.
The films and monuments of Steven C. Barber — two decades of documentaries that moved a nation, and bronze that now stands in its most hallowed places.
2006Founded in Santa Monica
0+Films & documentaries
Oscar®Shortlisted — Unbeaten
TIMETop 10 Olympic film of all time
Seen on
01 · Featured work
Films that moved
a nation
One film helped pass legislation in Congress. Another made the Academy's shortlist. All of them started with a story nobody else was telling.
02 · Filmography
The full slate
From the beaches of Tarawa to the deck of the USS Carl Vinson to the launch pad of Apollo 11. Tap a poster to watch.
03 · Screening room
Reels, press & premieres
04 · The monument maker
From film to bronze
The same stories, told at monumental scale. Steven produces, finances and shepherds bronze monuments into communities across America — with sculptors of the calibre of George and Mark Lundeen.
Cradle of Aviation · Reagan Library
Sally Ride
Monuments to the first American woman in space — two coast-to-coast homes, with coverage from the CBS Evening News on July 4, 2023.
- Two installations
- CBS Evening News
Space Center Houston
Apollo 13
A bronze tribute to the crew of Apollo 13, unveiled alongside Jim Lovell and Fred Haise themselves. Funded by The Grainger Foundation.
- Jim Lovell
- Fred Haise
- Grainger Foundation
2026 · The White House Rose Garden
Thomas Jefferson
George Lundeen's bronze of Jefferson drafting the Declaration, installed in the Rose Garden — the sculpture gifted by the artist, the placement facilitated by Barber.
- George Lundeen
- The New York Times
2026 · U.S. Naval Academy
Jimmy Carter
A bronze bust of the Naval Academy's own president, unveiled at Carter Hall on October 1, 2026 — before family, and former Secretaries of the Navy.
- Carter Hall
- Adm. Michael Mullen
West Palm Beach, Florida
A President in Bronze
A commissioned presidential monument, delivered to Trump International Golf Club — the work of a maker whose portraits have reached the White House itself.
- Commissioned work
- Presidential
Fayetteville, North Carolina
For the Fallen
A veterans monument commissioned by Lowe's and unveiled on Veterans Day — standing where military families gather to remember.
- Lowe's
- Veterans Day
A VUGA Foundation program
American Heritage
Monuments
Communities propose the subjects; the team researches, secures sculptors, and fundraises — so each monument is gifted at no charge. Steven Barber serves on the advisory board and is the program's driving force.
- 501(c)(3)
- Nationwide
As covered by The New York Times · CBS Evening News · CNN · collectSPACE · Colorado Sun / AP · Santa Barbara Independent · ArtRealNY — “Monument Maker to the President”
05 · In the news
Making headlines
From the Rose Garden to Kennedy Space Center — the papers are following the bronze. Tap any story to read it at the source.
06 · The founder
He bet everything he had on $50,000 of camera equipment — and gave documentary filmmaking a shot.
Steven C. Barber is a writer and filmmaker living in Santa Monica, California. Born in Syracuse, New York, he is the great-nephew of Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. After Augusta Military Academy and Western Kentucky University he headed west to work in film and television — then spent years at sea aboard 19 cruise ships, an adventure that became his novel, Below the Waterline.
Back in Hollywood, he walked away from reality television, bought a camera package and made Return to Tarawa — an award-winning documentary, narrated by Ed Harris, that helped pass congressional legislation to bring home America's missing from World War II.
Unbeaten, narrated by Dan Aykroyd, followed: 31 paraplegic athletes pushing their wheelchairs 267 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage. Its success grew Vanilla Fire into a full-service documentary and commercial production house — and the U.S. Navy granted Barber exclusive filming rights for The Carrier.
Today the same instinct that brings forgotten heroes to the screen is casting them in bronze. Through American Heritage Monuments — the public-art program he drives with the VUGA Foundation — his monuments now stand at Kennedy Space Center, the White House Rose Garden, and the U.S. Naval Academy.
0Miles in six days — the race at the heart of Unbeaten
0Cruise ships worked before returning to Hollywood
0Act of Congress, moved by Return to Tarawa
07 · The company
The people behind the lens
A full-service video and film production company serving entertainment and advertising, in traditional and new media.
08 · Behind the scenes
On set, on stage, on the record
09 · Contact
A story for the screen —
or for the ages?
A documentary, a campaign, or a monument to a hero of your community — both begin with a conversation.