Q & A and group discussions will follow free screening
Article by Scott Iwasaki for the Park Record (April 23, 2023)
The film, which is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 27, at the Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium, 1255 Park Ave., is about what happened after U.S. Marine Richard “Mac” McKinney, who planned to bomb a mosque in Indiana, met the people he wanted to kill, said Park City Film Executive Director Katharine Wang.
“I saw the film at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, as part of a collection of shorts, and iIwas completely blown away,” she said. “Mac was there, and I was just waiting for the end so I could talk with him.”
McKinney’s transformation in the film impressed Wang, but her live interaction with him was “unbelievable.”
There is so much division in America today, whether that be political or socio-economically, and this is an opportunity for everyone to be on a level playing field.” Nicole Wozniak, Mountain Mediation Center communications coordinator
“There was something in how he speaks about how this experience changed his whole life, and what that meant in terms of how humanity can move forward in coming together with people who are seemingly so different from ourselves,” she said.
After Wang saw the Academy Award-nominated film, which runs approximately 30 minutes, she began thinking about bringing it to Park City.
“We don’t usually program shorts, so it took us a little while for us to understand how things would work out,” she said.
As Wang thought about the film, she felt it would fit in Park City Film’s Raising Voices Series program that showcases and supports communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the arts.
“Like what we do in our Reel Community Series, the Raising Voices Series uses film as a catalyst for conversation to get deeper into the topics that are shown on screen,” she said.
Those who attend Raising Voices Series screenings usually stay for a Q & A panel discussion, but are also wanting to talk amongst themselves about what they’ve seen, Wang said.
This happened during a prior Raising Voices Series screening, of Ried Davenport’s award-winning Sundance Film Festival documentary “I Didn’t See You There,” according to Wang.
With “I Didn’t See You There,” the discussions were held a couple of days after the screening, because the film is a feature-length documentary, Wang said.
“So with ‘Stranger at the Gate,’ we thought, what if we program a short film this time and do everything the same night,” she said.
Nicole Wozniak, Mountain Mediation Center communications coordinator, said her nonprofit and Park City Film will not only facilitate a Zoom Q & A with the director and film’s subject Richard “Mac” McKinney, it will also host small-group breakout conversations afterwards, and refreshments will be served to the participants.
“MMC will facilitate questions … where participants will get the chance to share their thoughts about the film,” she said. “People will also get to hear from their community members and get a deeper understanding of our community and film as a whole.”
The discussions will be held in a safe and respectful environment in the Santy Auditorium where participants can be “genuinely heard,” Wozniak said.
“There is so much division in America today, whether that be political or socio-economically, and this is an opportunity for everyone to be on a level playing field, to have a minute to share their thoughts on topics that they may not have a chance in their personal environments to speak freely about,” she said. “This will be a place for them to also hear from community members whom they might not agree with, and engage with them, which is something that I don’t think happens a lot in this current day and age.”
These discussions align with Mountain Mediation Center’s mission, which brings “people together to prevent conflict, resolve disputes and build a more inclusive community,” according to Wozniak.
“This film directly addresses conflict and resolution, something that isn’t addressed but people have strong feelings about,” she said. “So, I’m excited to see what people will bring to the table with these upcoming discussions.
Programming a short film and hosting these small-group conversations during the same night is “sort of like an experiment,” Wang said.
“We hoped to have these extended conversations when we created the Raising Voice Series, to dig a little deeper in conversations that can be about everything from disabilities to overcoming hate,” she said. “If this is a successful format, we want to continue it going forward. We would love to do more things like this.”
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