Jay Craven’s “Disappearances”

Posted on October 30, 2007
Filed Under LAFG Events, Southern Circuit Tour |

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers continues in Lake Charles this Saturday, November 3, with Jay Craven’s Disappearances, starring Kris Kristofferson and GeneviÃ¨ve Bujold. The screening will be held at the Central School Arts & Humanities Center, 809 Kirby Street, at 7:00 pm. After the screening there will be a discussion with award-winning writer, director, and producer Jay Craven, followed by a reception.

Filmmaker Jay Craven has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work, including two Film Production Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for Where the Rivers Flow North and Disappearances. His films have played 345 U.S. cities and towns, 52 countries, and more than sixty international film festivals.

In 1975, Jay Craven founded and directed Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, which grew into New England’s largest independent film and performing arts presenter. In 1991, Craven left Catamount Arts and founded Kingdom County Productions, a nonprofit media arts organization. He is currently a tenured professor of film studies at Marlboro College and continues to direct Kingdom County Productions in Barnet, Vermont, where, in addition to producing feature films, he oversees the Fledgling Films program for teen filmmakers.

Disappearances is based on the award-winning novel by Howard Frank Mosher. “I was attracted to Howard Mosher’s tall tale for its mix of hair-raising adventure, laugh-out-loud humor, compelling emotional drama, and magical realist whimsy,” Craven says. “The history and imagination of this outlaw legacy is deeply rooted in the North County — as much as any enterprise in the old west that triggered literally hundreds of movies about outlaws and the fading frontier.”

Disappearances completes Jay Craven’s trilogy of “Vermont frontier films.” Like many westerns, it explores characters and themes related to a fading frontier where an outlaw culture survives in the margins. In 2006, Disappearances was selected by the American Film Institute to be one of 8 US and 11 international films for its first ever AFI: Project 20/20 — a year long global and cultural exchange including workshops, seminars and appearances at film festivals, cultural centers, and museums.

From AFI:

DISAPPEARANCES is a powerfully mysterious film. The story is set deep in the rural Northeast and features excellent ensemble performances by legendary actor/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold and newcomer Charlie McDermott.

Kristofferson stars as schemer and dreamer Quebec Bill Bonhomme in a spellbinding taleof smuggling, a family’s mysterious past, and a young boy’s rite of passage. Bill, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered cattle herd through a long winter, resorts to whiskey smuggling, a traditional family occupation. He takes his son, Wild Bill, on an unforgettable trip that will long remain etched in the viewer’s mind.

Palpable, intimate and magical with the vivid textures of rural outback life, Craven’s delightfully simple narrative operates on powerful metaphorical levels.

Official Movie Website.

Disappearances is presented by the Lake Area Film Group, in conjunction with the Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana and the City of Lake Charles. The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation. Check out the Southern Circuit Tour Blog.

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Jay Craven’s “Disappearances”

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