Lost Nation

2024. Directed by Jay Craven. 107 minutes. Not rated.

Q&A with filmmaker Jay Craven to follow both screenings.

Jay Craven’s Revolutionary War-era drama intertwines the stories of larger-than-life, Vermont founding father, Ethan Allen, and the pioneering frontier poet and formerly enslaved woman, Lucy Terry Prince, in their parallel quests for justice and self-determination.

Lost Nation stars Irish actor Kevin Ryan (“Copper,” “Harry Wild”) as Ethan Allen, who leads resistance to New York 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. At every turn, Allen navigates thick entanglements with allies, enemies, and family.

The film also 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.

Like Ethan Allen, the Princes found themselves caught up in turbulent times that threatened their prospects for the land and freedom they sought. Like Allen, Lucy Prince upset the status quo in her assertive use of early Vermont’s legal and political systems to defend her family in the face of pressure and threats.

Eva Ndachi (as Lucy Terry Prince) is just REMARKABLE.” –Mikaela Lefrak, Vermont Edition