SF International Film Festival – The Overnighters – April 28th & May 3rd

Documentary

As our national Great Recession deepens and extends further on and farther out, Williston, North Dakota, is an honest-to-God boomtown. Flush with jobs from hydraulic fracturing operations, the town is a beacon of hope for out-of-work men from all corners of the United States who flock there for one last shot at turning their lives around and salvaging their families, fortunes and self-respect. This sudden influx of the great unwashed, however, is not greeted with open arms by longtime Williston residents, many of whom are downright hostile toward these migrant workers. That’s where Pastor Jay Reinke and his Concordia Lutheran Church come in. Despite protestations from neighbors and his own congregation, Pastor Reinke believes it is his God-given duty to give these “overnighters” a place to stay, be it in the pews or parking lot of his church. With public sentiment bearing down on the good Pastor and his program, revelations about these new arrivals threaten to upset the delicate peace once and for all. Filmmaker Jesse Moss spent two years embedded in Williston, and his familiarity with the community anchors the film in a bracingly real psycho-geography. Existing in an intersection between John Steinbeck, Barbara Kopple and Andrew Jarecki, The Overnighters is a quietly simmering masterpiece. –Mike Keegan