It took me too long to watch Josh Seftel‘s Stranger at the Gate, a 26-minute doc that’s been nominated for a Best Documentary Short Film Oscar.
I finally saw it last night, and I immediately understood. The filmmaking chops aren’t the thing, although it’s an intelligent, well-ordered effort from start to finish. The thing is the narrative — what actually happened with Richard (Mac) McKinney, a former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, developed PTSD and acute Islamophobia. He was so consumed that he decided to kill dozens of Muslims on a local mosque in his home town of Muncie, Indiana, but it didn’t work out that way.
The why and how of McKinney’s change of heart is what turns the key…what makes the watching of this film fairly close to sublime. Please submit to it — it’s only a half-hour, and it really has an effect by the end.