A small mining town in northwestern North Dakota is covered by white snow in the winter, filled with black oil and bursting with red flames.
The town is named White Earth, and it's the setting for the Academy Award-nominated short documentary of the same name. Directed by St. George native and BYU alumnus J. Christian Jensen, the documentary focuses on a part of America that has boomed with oil workers the past few years.
"All of the people that came in, all of a sudden, to work in the oil fields, are just coming up here for how much money they're supposed to be making," said then-13-year-old James McClellan in the film.
Economically struggling individuals and families have moved to White Earth in recent years to work in the oil industry, but the small town affords them little space to live. What was a population of 80 before the recession of 2008 now includes hundreds of people living in RVs and trucks throughout the town.
Jensen heard about the influx of workers from his father. Jensen went to White Earth in fall 2012 and spent several wintry months filming.
The 20-minute documentary is told through the lens of three children and one immigrant mother. Jensen said he is drawn toward the innocent accounts of children in storytelling.
"They are very perceptive but less interested in creating a certain image or saving face somehow," Jensen said. "I thought I could get at something a little more truthful by looking at them."
He graduated from BYU wanting to specialize in nonfiction filmmaking.
"Almost all of the filmmakers that have influenced me stylistically were filmmakers that I was exposed to at BYU," Jensen said.
Jensen will be attending the Academy Awards on Sunday evening (ABC, 6:30 p.m. MST) along with his wife, father and two co-workers. There are four other nominees in the category along with "White Earth," but Jensen isn't concerned about winning.
"I would be completely content to just have a fun evening," Jensen said. "I feel very lucky that I’ve been able to go on this journey and see the film reach a much bigger audience than I ever dreamed."
In 2014, "White Earth" won a Raven Award for Best Director at the DocUtah Film Festival in St. George.
Taylor Hintz is a Deseret News features reporter and a journalism student at Brigham Young University.
Email: thintz@deseretnews.com
Twitter: TaylorHintz