NEW YORK, New York – The documentary short film Stranger at the Gate. A prize winner at this year’s Tribeca Festival will be published by The New Yorker. As part of the magazine’s award-winning New Yorker Documentary Series. It will début on newyorker.com and on The New Yorker’s YouTube channel on September 14th. Stranger at the Gate will be available worldwide.
The New Yorker’s short films in 2021 included two Academy Award nominees. Firstly, the animated short film Affairs of the Art and Lastly, the live-action short film On My Mind. Six of The New Yorker’s 2021 films were on Oscar shortlists. Namely Águilas, A Broken House, Affairs of the Art, Step Into the River, Les Grandes Claques, and Under the Heavens.
Watch the official trailer for Stranger At The Gate as directed by Joshua Seftel
“At this moment, when senseless hate crimes across the U.S. are an everyday occurrence, Stranger at the Gate shines a light on our shared humanity and delivers a message of hope,” the film’s director, Joshua Seftel, said. “The heroes of this story show us that, if we offer kindness and openness to the people around us, transformational things can happen.”
The film is praised by film critics and considered a leading awards contender. “Stranger at the Gate” tells the true story of the U.S. Marine Richard (Mac) McKinney. Suffering from P.T.S.D., McKinney decides to bomb the mosque in his home town of Muncie, Indiana. When he arrives at the mosque to gather more information for his plan, the congregants, including Afghan refugees and an African American convert, welcome him, get to know him, and show him deep love and kindness. Within weeks, the story takes a stunning turn. Instead of committing an act of violence, McKinney converts to Islam and becomes president of the mosque.
“There are so many stories of hate crimes these days that make us feel hopeless,” the executive producer Lena Khan said. “This film is different.”
“Stranger at the Gate shows the immense power of human connection and forgiveness—and the razor-thin line between tragedy and redemption,” Soo-Jeong Kang, The New Yorker’s executive director of video, said.
“Stranger at the Gate” is the newest film in Seftel’s decade-long effort to combat Islamophobia. It does well to shatter stereotypes. “Secret Life of Muslims,” a series of shorts nominated for Emmy, Peabody, and IDA Documentary Awards. The strategy of the series, which has more than seventy million views to date, is to tell stories in many different formats, from short films to animations to music videos. Its partners include Vox, the New York Times, NPR, and now The New Yorker.
Seftel’s deep committment to the mission of his project stems from his having experienced antisemitism as a child. “When I began to notice the level of Islamophobia in the U.S., I thought, Maybe I can do something as a filmmaker to give a more accurate depiction of American Muslims.”
The project met obstacles early on, but picked up momentum when Donald Trump began his Presidential campaign. Seftel has occasionally received hate mail for his work. But mostly he has been lauded, including with the Muslim Public Affairs Council Hollywood Bureau Media Award (shared with Sir Bob Geldof and the director Lena Khan) and the upcoming El Hibri Foundation Peace Awards’ Fearless Ally Award, which he will receive in late October. Seftel is known for directing work with a social conscience. This includes the Emmy-winning landmark series “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. The political satire “War, Inc.”—starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, and Ben Kingsley—and many award-winning documentary films.
About The Director – Joshua Seftel
“Stranger at the Gate” is the latest film in Joshua Seftel’s Emmy- and Peabody-nominated “Secret Life of Muslims” project (SXSW), which combats Islamophobia with filmmaking. Seftel, who experienced antisemitism as a child, has been committed to working on this subject matter for the past seven years.
At age twenty-two, Seftel made his first film, the Emmy-nominated “Lost and Found” (PBS), which exposed the conditions of Romania’s orphaned and abandoned children and spurred the American adoption of thousands of children. His other award-winning films include “Taking on the Kennedys” (POV), “Ennis’ Gift” (HBO), “The Home Team” (SXSW), “The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano” (NYT Op-Docs, Tribeca), and the anti-war movie “War, Inc.” (Tribeca), starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, and Ben Kingsley. He is also a contributor to the Peabody Award-winning podcast “This American Life” and a commentator on CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” where he regularly interviews his eighty-five-year-old mother.
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