Malala Yousafzai, Facing History & Ourselves, Righteous Persons Foundation and Joshua Seftel Discuss “Stranger at the Gate” Documentary
Academy Award nominated documentary screened at Animo Jackie Robinson High School in Los Angeles, followed by a conversation with students about social activism, hate and bigotry
Los Angeles, Ca (February 28, 2023) – Today, Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace prize-winner, education activist and executive producer of “Stranger at the Gate,” in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves (Facing History) and Righteous Persons Foundation, hosted a screening and discussion of the Oscar-nominated documentary for more than 100 high school students at Animo Jackie Robinson High School to encourage students to consider ways to make a difference and bring communities together.
Yousafzai was joined by Facing History and Ourselves educators and students, award-winning filmmaker Joshua Seftel and Shayna Rose Triebwasser, Executive Director from Righteous Persons Foundation. The event comes after a dramatic increase in violence and hate speech linked to antisemitism and racism.
The film “Stranger at the Gate” is about a US Marine so filled with hatred for Muslims, that he plots to bomb an Indiana mosque. But when he comes face to face with the immigrants he seeks to kill, the story takes a shocking twist toward compassion, grace, and forgiveness.
Facing History is the film’s education partner and is sharing “Stranger at the Gate” with high school educators and students across the globe. The organization has a network of more than 400,000 educators who use lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate by inspiring them to discover their own voice and agency so that they can choose to play an active and positive role in their peer groups, schools, communities, and the larger world. Facing History created a conversation guide to extend students’ and other viewers’ reflection on the film’s themes and to help build community through dialogue. They are also curating resources for deeper learning in classrooms, which will be made available broadly.
“In order to create true change, we must empower our students to have conversations across social divides,” said Gretchen Blake, Executive Director of Facing History and Ourselves in Southern California. “Facing History teachers support students in having challenging conversations and Stranger at the Gate depicts a moving example of what a difference these discussions and connections can make.”
”We’re so excited to be partnering with Facing History to bring this story of real life heroes standing up to bigotry into classrooms across the United States,” said the film’s director, Joshua Seftel.
”This film speaks poignantly to the idea of connecting across seemingly impossible divides and finding a way to accompany each other in this world. We are proud to be a small part of bringing this movie to the world,” said Shayna Rose Triebwasser, Executive Director at Righteous Persons.
