The film, “Stranger at the Gate,” will show Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Jim Santy Auditorium. Executive Director of Park City Film Katy Wang says it was a film she saw at last year’s Telluride Film Festival, and it blew her away.
“It's a film,a documentary, about a former US Marine Mac McKinney, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and just has this kind of anger and hatred that is just consuming him” Wang said. “And how he kind of actualizes that is he plans to blow up the mosque in his small Midwestern town. And he is going through with this plan, and he meets the people that he's basically about to kill, and it completely changes the trajectory of his life.”
The film is just 30 minutes long and afterwards, the film’s director and the film’s subject, Mac McKinney, will be on hand for a post-film discussion.
“When you listen to Mac, I mean, he's such an incredibly just powerful speaker, just kind of the humanity that he realized to this experience, and how he wants to pay it forward is pretty impressive,” Wang said.
After that, there will be a short break for Auntie Em’s cookies, then Mountain Mediation Center volunteers will split the audience into small groups, each with a trained facilitator.
Nicole Wozniak is the Center’s community conversations coordinator and says this film is a great way to discuss difficult issues, resolve disputes and create an inclusive community.
“And these are the conversations that Mountain Mediation Center is looking to have with our community and to bring community members together that may not agree on certain issues, and may not have a chance to talk about some of these divisive topics, and to come to a safe space and have a chance to talk about them hear what their neighbors think about these topics," Wozniak said.
Here is alink to the film’s trailer and registration page for the film.
