Featuring Vermont in historical action drama
By JAY CRAVEN
I’ll play my new film, Lost Nation, at Concord’s Red River Theatres, Dec. 13 through Dec. 19. The picture is a Revolutionary War-era action drama set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont — which considered itself, crucially, as a vital part of the Province of New Hampshire, up to the moment of Vermont’s founding and declaration as an independent republic on Jan. 15, 1777.
I say “crucially” because this territory, between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain, was hotly contested — between New Hampshire and New York, at that time.
Wealthy semi-feudal New York landholders like the Rensselaers and Van Cortlands claimed to own tracts of 300,000 and 400,000 acres in this territory — land that they had, for the most part, never even seen. Identifying this lack of settlement as an opportunity, New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth (1741-1766) claimed this same land in his highly controversial effort to expand the borders of his province.
Wentworth began selling 50 and 100-acre parcels to poor farmers and settlers, many of them veterans of the French and Indian Wars, who returned home to southern New England and found the good properties already taken. Wentworth chartered 131 towns in the territory — including his namesake, Bennington. He kept a piece of each new municipality’s land and a share of the cash proceeds for himself.
Royal courts ruled in favor of New York — but Wentworth persisted, and the settlers claimed their New Hampshire Grants as the basis for a protracted armed conflict and land struggle against New York. This New Hampshire/New York/Vermont conflict was one of three during this time, the others taking place in North Carolina and the Hudson River Valley. It was the only one where the poor settlers prevailed.
Lost Nation features Vermont founding father and rebel schemer, Ethan Allen, who leads New Hampshire Grants resis
tance to New Yorker land claims, launches an ill-fated attack on British forces in Montreal, and leads invasions by his Green Mountain Boys into Yorker strongholds of Guilford and Brattleboro.
Lost Nation’s parallel and intersecting story also features pioneering poet, Lucy Terry Prince, who was enslaved at the age of 3 in western Massachusetts—and, using a New Hampshire grant, settled a Guilford homestead with her family during this same time.
Like Ethan Allen, the Princes found themselves caught up in turbulent times that threatened their prospects for the land and freedom they sought. In those days, land was everything—a measure of status, standing and a chance for prosperity and community engagement.
Like Ethan Allen, Lucy Prince upset the status quo in her assertive use of early Vermont’s legal and political systems. Ethan did it to push back New York land claims to property in the Green Mountains. Lucy did it to defend her family and secure their homestead.
Our tour is still new—I’ll play 100 New England towns. We’ve been attending sold crowds. And I had an encouraging sign while driving last summer through New England to see Neil Young in concert. Near Amherst, I got a random call on my cellphone. I expected it to be a junk call but a gravelly voice on the other end of the call seemed real.
“Is this Jay?”
“It is,” I said, still expecting to be offered a new option for Medicare.
“My name’s Bob…” the man said, barely pausing for breath, “…in St. Louis. And we never call people about this but I’m one of the prescreeners for the St. Louis Film Festival and I watched your film, Lost Nation, last night and it’s the best film I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Wow,” I said. “Thanks a lot. And thanks for taking the time to call.”
“No problem,” he said. “I just love your film. But that doesn’t mean it will actually be programmed. I have no control over that.”
“I get it. But can I use your quote on our poster?” I said, half joking. “‘The Best Film I’ve Ever Seen.’ – Bob from St. Louis.”
We both laughed.
We drew our film research from 162 books—I know because we recently donated them to the St. Johnsbury Academy library in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. But historical films are always fictional because, no matter how much research you do, you can never know the individual moments of an historical character’s life. Fact, he then did this and said things we’ll never know about—even the modern ones.
When you go back 250 years—anything could have happened. That said, every dramatic beat in the film was tested against the research.
I was first drawn to the Ethan Allen story in 1974,
after I broke my wrist bailing out of a runaway farm truck and spent the winter afternoons at the Vermont Historical Society research room, scrawling handwritten notes on very legal pads. Now, 50 years later, I’m taking my imagination and newly honed judgment full circle.
With Lost Nation, I took what I learned from historical research to build a sometimes-surprising story. One revelation — just the amount of turbulence, strife and dramatic action during the late 18th century, in this region, from whippings and land confiscations for fines set to settle political scores. Ethan Allen led two invasions into southeastern Vermont towns, arresting settlers who supported New York.
I went with what had nothing on what happened in our region during this time. I hoped to capture an indelible moment that shows the complexity and power of an early version of the “American Dream” — and the promise of the American Revolution.
This film was quite challenging to produce because it was filmed on more than 40 locations, needed to include battle scenes, and has 43 speaking parts for characters including Ethan Allen, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and more. One fun fact: Boston patriot Samuel Adams is played in the film by his actual direct descendant, Samuel Adams.
Financing the project was also difficult, with extensive grass-roots fundraising, including a $100,000 Kickstarter campaign and a very generous benefit concert performed for us in Burlington by Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Jackson Browne. It is also important to note how I produced the film through my Semester Cinema project, where 80 professionals worked on the film alongside 45 professionals, to make an ambitious, fully-professional film for national release.
So, this was a very difficult project. The British playwright and film director, David Hare, stopped making films because he said he best expresses himself in a film that always means the film would fail — the most difficult times in directed surface success.
I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Lost Nation will be screened from Friday, December 13 through Thursday, December 19 at the Red River Theatres in Concord, NH. Director Jay Craven will lead post-film Q&A discussions that take place Saturday, December 14, at 6:45 pm and Sunday, December 15 at 1:15 pm and 4 pm. More information is available at http://www.redrivertheatres.com.
