Finding Home in Boomtown

World Premiere
Mountainfilm Emerging Filmmaker
“When the Lord calls you to do something, you don’t say no,” says John-Mark Echols, packing up his young family’s 2,600-square-foot home in boomtown Midland, Texas, to move into a 35-square-foot travel trailer. Their voluntary tumble into poverty, which is fueled by humanity, is chronicled in this film. After years of volunteer work with the homeless in Midland, where shale drilling has turned the Permian Basin into America’s hottest oilfield, Echols and his wife sell their home — and abandon their six-figure income ­— to create The Field’s Edge, a permanent, supportive tiny-home community for 100-plus chronically homeless residents. Two years in, the project, with 100 homes, counseling, on-site mental and physical health care and varying job opportunities, is becoming a reality. Its motto: “To rebuild dignity through relationships.”