Event

The Overnighters @ SLIFF

A modern-day "The Grapes of Wrath," the award-winning "The Overnighters" chronicles the drama unfolding in the tiny town of Williston, N.D., where the natural-gas boom lures tens of thousands of unemployed hopefuls with dreams of honest work and a big paycheck. But those busloads of newcomers chasing a broken American Dream step into the stark reality of slim work prospects and nowhere to sleep. Over at Concordia Lutheran Church, Pastor Jay Reinke is driven to deliver the migrants some dignity. Night after night, he converts his church into a makeshift dorm and counseling center, opening the church's doors to allow the "Overnighters" (as he calls them) to stay for a night, a week, or longer. Many who take shelter with Reinke live on society's fringes and have checkered pasts, and their presence upsets the dynamics of the small community, forcing the pastor to make a decision with profound and unimagined consequences. Praising the film as "one of the most remarkable examples of layered non-fiction storytelling to come along in some time," Indiewire writes: "At first galvanizing in its depiction of survival amid dire circumstances, 'The Overnighters' transforms into a devastating portrait of communal unrest."