"LOST NATION" FILM SCREENING

"Lost Nation" is a Revolutionary War-era action drama set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont - which was contested territory through much of the 18th century, with huge New York landholders, like the Van Cortlandts and Renssalaers dispatching sheriffs and posses to evict poor settlers from southern New England who bought fraudulent but low-cost land titles - to "their land," issued by the corrupt New Hampshire governor, Benning Wentworth.

The picture 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 Yorker strongholds of Guilford and Brattleboro.

"Lost Nation's" parallel and intersecting story features Kenyan actress Eva Ndachi as pioneering Black poet, Lucy Terry Prince, who was enslaved at the age of 3 in Deerfield Massachusetts, where she convened weekly 1760's "story and poetry slams" on the front porch of the Massachusetts Wells family she served for 30 years. In the early 1770's Lucy's freedom was purchased by her husband, Abijah - and she moved with her family to a plot of land gifted to them - that placed the Princes at the center of the political turbulence in the contested territory to their north.

The film includes Orleans actor, Jeff Zinn - and a cast whose credits include There WIll Be Blood, The Unforgiven, American Beauty, The Crucible, Sophie's Choice - and more. The screening will include director Q and A - and the picture was shot on Nantucket, the Berkshires - and Vermont.

Category: Arts | Visual Arts | Film / Cinema