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Special Screening: LOST NATION – Q&A to follow
with director Jay Craven
Description: Jay Craven’s newest film, “Lost Nation,”
will play Nantucket’s Dreamland Theater at 7pm, Thursday, August 1st.
The picture is set between 1775 and 1785 and was mostly shot on Nantucket
during the spring of 2022. Locations include the NHA’s Oldest House, Thomas
Macy House, and Quaker Meeting House as locations. Sets were built at the
American Legion Hall on Washington Street – and the Main Street/Fair Street
side of the Pacific National Bank doubles as Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.
“Lost Nation” captures a Revolutionary War era action drama
set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont. The film stars Irish actor
Kevin Ryan (“Copper,” Harry Wild”) as Vermont founding father and rebel
schemer, Ethan Allen, who leads resistance to New Yorker land claims, launches
an ill-fated attack on British forces in Montreal, and leads invasions by his
Green Mountain Boys into New York strongholds of Guilford and Brattleboro. At
every turn, Allen navigates thick entanglements with allies, enemies, and
family.
“Lost Nation’s” parallel and intersecting story features
Kenyan actress Eva Ndachi (“Beautifully Broken”) as Lucy Terry Prince, whose
poem, “Bars Fight,” about the 1746 Deerfield Massacre, is the first known work
of African American literature. Enslaved in Western Massachusetts at the age of
3 - for 30 years - Terry then settled with her family on a Guilford homestead
carved out of the forest by her husband, formerly enslaved frontier transport
operator, Abijah Prince. Prince family antagonist, aspiring Guilford
politician John Noyes, is played by Rob Campbell (“The Crucible,” “Ethan
Frome,” “The Unforgiven”).
Like Ethan Allen, the Princes found themselves caught up in
turbulent times that threatened their prospects for the land and liberty they
sought during the American Revolution. Like Allen, Lucy Prince also upset
the status quo in her assertive use of early Vermont’s legal and political
systems to protect her family from local harassment and intimidation.
Film director Craven was first drawn to the Ethan Allen
story in 1974, when he spent winter afternoons at the Vermont Historical
Society research room, scrawling handwritten notes on yellow legal pads.
Now, 50 years later, he’ll be taking this long-imagined but newly produced film
on the road.
“With “Lost Nation,” Craven said, “we took what we learned
from historical research to build a story. There’s a lot of known history about
Ethan Allen – though no images of what he looked like. There is also
plenty that is not known. And some research has been put forward by
historians, only recently, that enriches and complicates this fascinating
story. For the Princes, less is known but court and town records reveal
plenty of dramatic action.”
“I hoped to capture an indelible moment that shows the
complexity and power of an early version of the American dream – along with the
challenge to fulfill the promise of the American Revolution. It allows us
to consider the life and actions of Vermont’s larger-than-life rascal and early
pioneer, Ethan Allen – and little-known early Black Vermonters.”
“In doing this, we reflect on actor Tom Hanks’s recent call
for history-based fiction films that “map our cultural DNA, reflect who we
really are and help determine what is our full history – including the history
of Black people that has too often been left out.”
“The film was quite challenging to produce,” said Craven,
“because it was filmed on more than 3 dozen Vermont and Massachusetts locations
- and needed to include battle scenes, dozens of locations and 43 speaking
parts for characters ranging from Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden to George
Washington and Alexander Hamilton. One fun fact: Boston patriot Samuel
Adams is played in the film by his direct descendent, Samuel Adams.
“Lost Nation” is Craven’s 10th feature
film. His work has shown at Sundance, Lincoln Center, The Smithsonian and
more than 500 cities and towns across the U.S. - also in 53 countries. He
is the recipient of the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts,
the 2023 Herb Lockwood Prize, four regional Emmys, the Producers Guild of
America’s NOVA Award, the National Endowment for the Arts’ American
Masterpieces recognition, and others. His 1993 film, “Where the Rivers Flow
North” was a named finalist for Critics Week at the Cannes International Film
Festival.
The film was produced through Kingdom County Productions’
Semester Cinema program where 30 professionals mentor and collaborate with 45
students from 10 colleges, to make an ambitious feature film for national
release. The film also includes Nantucket actors, Michael Kopko, Jack
Bulger, Ronan Murray, and Annie Ard.