By Oana Vasiliu (Romania)
Living the American, Oil-drilling Dream
As an elusive character says at one point during The Overnighters , everyone deserves a chance: this is America, and this is how the country was founded. Jesse Moss’s documentary presents exactly these elements. Its action takes place in the town of Williston, North Dakota, a place where hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) unlocks a vast oilfield and shortly becomes a Mecca for thousands of unemployed men eager to obtain six-figure salaries without actually knowing how to be part of this American Dream of getting rich—even though something very similar happened during the gold rush of the nineteenth century. Contrary to the first impression, the documentary does not approach the controversies surrounding fracking, nor the rise of prostitution or of sexual violence due to the changing ratio of men to women as a result of migration.
Rather, the drama focuses on a character who strongly believes in his faith. Concordia Lutheran Church pastor Jay Reinke, who preaches values such as tolerance, love, understanding and help for those in need, due to the large number of newcomers who are in town for oil-drilling jobs, initiates The Overnighters programme, converting his church into a temporary dorm which allows people to sleep in the church or in RV vans on its parking lot,. Unfortunately, the local community does not agree with the actions that the pastor is making, so the pressure begins: church members strongly disagree with the idea of having almost homeless people in the church, especially when the local newspaper presents the newcomers in a terrible light. Someone actually calls them “trash” and Reinke’s astonishment points again to the religious values that we all shall have.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Reinke’s decision to move Keith Graves, a registered sex offender, out of the church and into his own home changes the pastor’s plans. Although the intention was to especially avoid the press, which has written a series of negative stories about the Overnighters program, eventually everything booms. When the local paper, the Williston Herald, reports that several men staying at the Concordia are sex offenders, the community begins to turn against the Overnighters programme with vehemence. Reinke again tries to assure neighbours that the men in question are not dangerous by a door-to-door approach, but it is too late: the community wants them all to go.
The programme shuts down and the pastor resigns, hoping that at his age someone will hire him. Besides the inspiring portrait of one man who preaches the Christian values of loving and tolerating your neighbour, the movie also presents a snapshot of a moment in American history when men abandon homes and families to follow the six-figure salaries dream.
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Originally published here.
