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SFFILM Festival

The Overnighters

Directed by Jesse Moss

USA | 100

28 Apr
Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 6:30 pm PT

Description

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

This is a Cinema by the Bay film.

Director Jesse Moss

A lecturer in the Cinema Department of San Francisco State University and Filmmaker-in-Residence at SFSU’s Documentary Film Institute, Jesse Moss has worked as a producer for Barbara Kopple and twice been a fellow of the MacDowell Colony and Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. The Overnighters, his fourth film, was recently awarded the Special Jury Prize for Intuitive Filmmaking at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Film Details

Language English

Year 2014

Runtime 100

Country USA

Director Jesse Moss

Producer Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine

Editor Jeff Gilbert

Cinematographer Jesse Moss

Music T. Griffin