Event Calendar Listing
Sunday, Jan. 21
7:30 p.m.


Dana Auditorium, located in Sunderland Language Center on College Street (Route 125)
Open to the public; free to Middlebury College ID holders and admission charge of $2 for non-ID holders

Jay Craven will introduce a screening of his new film, “Disappearances,” on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Dana Auditorium. The director will also lead a post-screening discussion.

Based on Howard Frank Mosher’s Prohibition-era novel, “Disappearances” tells the story of Quebec Bill Bonhomme, played by Kris Kristofferson, an impossible dreamer and schemer who needs fast cash after a freak lightning storm destroys his barn. Despite forebodings from his skeptical and mystical sister, Cordelia, played by Genevieve Bujold, Quebec Bill hatches a plan to steal 20 cases of whiskey from Canada’s most notorious bootlegger and smuggle it back across the Vermont-Canadian border.  He takes along his 15-year-old son, his inscrutable brother-in-law, and his cranky hired man. Together, they cross the border into vast reaches of Canadian wilderness for three magical, mysterious and unforgettable days.

The film also co-stars Vermont’s Rusty DeWees, Luis Guzman, Bill Raymond, John Griesemer and Heather Rae. Filmed throughout Vermont, “Disappearances” has been screened at film festival around the United States. The American Film Institute (AFI) selected “Disappearances” as one of eight U.S. and 11 international films to screen at worldwide venues during the next year. 

Boston Phoenix film critic Gerald Peary called Craven’s latest film “an extraordinary accomplishment, a Depression-era piece made on a sub-shoestring budget. This Peckinpah-like Eastern Western stars grizzled Kris Kristofferson as an ex-moonshiner on a last quest, an optimist forever.” The American Film Institute wrote that “Craven’s delightfully simple narrative operates on powerful metaphorical levels.”

For more information, contact Assistant Professor of American Studies Karl Lindholm at 802-443-5381 or lindholm@middlebury.edu.