Last Nation Filming

Photos by Bill Hoenk

In a time of year when the island is almost eerily quiet, Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven brought over a herd of cast and crew from the mainland earlier this month to shoot his newest feature film Lost Nation. The film is not Craven’s first rodeo on Nantucket; he has shot three other films on the island—Peter and John in 2014, Wetware in 2016, and Martin Eden in 2019—but there is no question that Craven’s most recent undertaking is his most ambitious project yet. The movie, a multiracial adventure drama, is set during the turbulent period of the Revolutionary War, and tells the parallel stories of Revolutionary War commander Ethan Allen and escaped slave Lucy Terry Prince, whose poem Bars Fight is considered the oldest known work of literature by an African American.

Lost Nation’s exploration of such a significant sliver of American history is perhaps what makes Nantucket such an appropriate location for the film. Nantucket, as in the film itself, has deep and complex historical roots—it once served as the nation’s leading whaling port—a fact that is apparent in the many historical buildings and structures scattered around the island. These very structures, such as the Oldest House, the Quaker Meeting House, and the African Meeting House, served as filming locations for Craven’s movie. Actors and actresses were dressed accordingly, adorned in intricately designed 18th century uniforms, robes, and headpieces.

On the other side of the cameras, the scene was very different: A swarm of college students repairing costumes, adjusting lights, designing sets, talking into headsets, and working under the mentorship of professional crew members. These students are part of Craven’s unique Semester Cinema program, a fully accredited semester-long study away program that immerses students from various colleges in every aspect of producing an ambitious feature film for national release.