“Northern Borders” tells the story of 10 year-old Austen Kittredge, who is sent to live on his grandparents’ Kingdom County Vermont farm, where he has wild adventures and uncovers long-festering family secrets. It’s 1956 and Austen experiences rural Kingdom County as a place full of eccentric people including his stubborn grandparents, whose thorny marriage is known as the Forty Years War. Initially feeling stuck in this fractured household, young Austen plans a quick exit but ends up stranded with no choice but to navigate and endure. A humorous and sometimes startling coming-of-age story, “Northern Borders” evokes Vermont’s wildness, its sublime beauty, a haunted past, and an aura of enchantment.
“Northern Borders” was produced as the result of a unique partnership between Jay Craven’s non-profit Kingdom County Productions and Marlboro College, where Craven is professor of film. The picture was made as the outcome of a semester-long film intensive called Movies from Marlboro. It was produced on a lean budget, through the collaboration of 20 young filmmaking professionals and 26 students from 12 colleges, who worked in substantial roles in every level of production. A new 2014 Movies from Marlboro project will produce “Peter and John,” based on Guy de Maupassant’s ground-breaking 1887 novel. That production is planned for next spring and will again partner professionals and students from multiple colleges who earn academic credit for a “semester away” from their home school. Information is available at Movies.Marlboro.edu or by contacting director Jay Craven ([email protected]).
“Northern Borders” tickets will be available at the door or in advance at Fiddleheads Gift Shop on Main Street in Colebrook; tickets can be reserved in advance by calling 237-9302 or 246-8998. Tour schedules are available online at KingdomCounty.org or by calling (802) 357-4616. For more information contact Jay Craven at [email protected]. For more information on this and other GNWCA events, visit www.gnwca.org.