From Fear And Hate To Love: The New Yorker Acquires Tribeca Doc ‘Stranger At The Gate,’ Redemption Story Of Ex-Marine

EXCLUSIVE: The New Yorker has acquired Joshua Seftel’s documentary short Stranger at the Gate ahead of its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The film tells a remarkable story of redemption about Richard “Mac” McKinney, a former U.S. Marine who fought in Afghanistan after 9/11, where his superiors encouraged him to view Muslims as enemies and less than human. After his military discharge, and suffering from PTSD, McKinney plotted to blow up the Islamic Center in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana.

McKinney scoped out the center in preparation for his planned attack, which he hoped would kill or injure at least 200 people.

“I just wanted to do harm to them,” McKinney admits in the film. “My plan was to detonate an IED right outside the Muncie Islamic Center on a Friday afternoon when they were all gathered.”

But when he entered the building on a sort of reconnaissance mission he was embraced by congregants, including Afghan refugees Dr. Saber Bahrani and his wife Bibi Bahrani, as well as Jomo Williams, an African American convert to Islam. Over a period of weeks and months McKinney would return to the center, gradually transformed by the kindness and acceptance he received from those he had originally intended to kill.

“This is a story I believe we need right now. It’s about America, and its deep problems. But it’s also about hope,” Seftel says. “And for a story with such unique characters and twists and turns, we can’t think of a better partner than The New Yorker.”

“There are so many stories of hate crimes these days that make us feel hopeless,” adds executive producer Lena Khan. “This film is different.”

Stranger at the Gate will debut on The New Yorker’s digital channels in September as part of the magazine’s award-winning New Yorker Documentary series. It’s expected to be an Oscar contender later this year.

“This film shows the immense power of human connection and forgiveness,” comments Soo-Jeong Kang, The New Yorker’s executive director of programming, “and the razor-thin line between tragedy and redemption.”

Seftel is known for creating the Emmy- and Peabody-nominated program The Secret Life of Muslims, a series of films intended to counter Islamophobia and dispel stereotypes about Muslims.

“Having faced anti-Semitism as a child, Seftel has been deeply committed to the mission of this project for most of the past decade,” notes a release about the acquisition of his new short. Seftel observes, “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.”

Seftel has earned the Muslim Public Affairs Council Hollywood Bureau Media Award, an honor shared with Bob Geldof and director Lena Khan. His credits include directing Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the short doc The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano (2015), and War, Inc., a 2008 political satire that starred John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd and Marisa Tomei.

The Tribeca world premiere of Stranger at the Gate will take place Saturday evening at the Village East by Angelika, with a Q&A to follow. It will screen again on Friday, June 17 at Cinépolis Chelsea, also followed by a Q&A. The film becomes available on the festival’s Tribeca at Home online platform on Monday evening, June 13.

Watch a teaser-trailer for the documentary above.