Premiere

‘Good-Bye To A House’, a documentary about Harrisville’s Seaver Farm, will be premiering at the Harrisville Community Church on Friday, September 27th at 7:00pm. The film will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Chris Hardee of High Cairn Films and Jodi Farwell of Farwell Farm, whose essay about the house, published in the town newsletter Common Threads in Dec 2020/Jan 2021, served as the basis for the film. The 22-minute film is a lyrical account of an ordinary New Hampshire farm caught in the current of history. Admission is free. Donations are encouraged. DVDs will be available for purchase.

The Film

‘Good-Bye To A House’ tells the story of a recently torn down New England farmhouse, the current of history, and the certainty of change. Told in the words and voice of someone who once lived there, the film paints an intimate portrait of the “old ways” and colorful individuality, all while creating a vivid sense of place. The film is both a dreamlike evocation of a bygone rural life, and a sympathetic eulogy of those who’ve come before us. At its heart, it is a personal inquiry into local history and the importance of remembering.

Background

“Every gaze that fell and lingered on that house was hungry not for boards and dormer windows and porches and chimneys, but for a story.”  

“Good-bye to a House” is a documentary-short based on the words of Jodi Farwell -- a mother, farmer, former school teacher, and writer -- who was a one-time resident of what’s most recently known as the Seaver Farm in Harrisville, NH. The film features evocative footage of the farm in all seasons and weather: its decaying barn, a hayfield on a hill, overgrown apple trees, stone walls demarcating the encroaching woods, and grand vistas of a looming Mt. Monadnock. This location footage will be complemented by impressionistic re-enactments plus a rich collection of archival and more recent images of the house, farm, and its people from over the years, culled from town historical society collections and local residents.

A lifelong resident of Harrisville, Farwell’s personal musings on the meaning of a house and place sets a tone that has resonated with many in Harrisville, a town of less than a thousand in southwestern New Hampshire, and will undoubtedly with many other residents in small rural towns throughout New Hampshire and New England. 

As Farwell says about the torn-down house: “In the absence of the house... we are approaching exactly what the people before us had and held dear above all: a good place upon which to freely exert a good will.”

The latest chapter for the Seaver Farm has seen the property protected by a conservation easement through the collaboration of a local non-profit and a regional conservation organization.

The idea for “Good-bye to a House” came from a chance encounter with Jodi Farwell’s essay in the Harrisville’s Common Threads newsletter (Dec/Jan 2020) in which the piece’s unique voice, point of view, and cinematic possibilities shone through.

Project Status 

Filming on the Seaver Farm property started in March 2021 and has continued through summer 2024, capturing the property in all seasons and weather. Picture research tapped numerous resources including: 1) Historic Harrisville, the Town of Nelson, and Historical Society of Cheshire County collections; 2) the unseen visual record of Edgar Seaver and Paul Geddes who both resided on the farm; 3) local photographers who took evocative house portraits before its demolition in November 2020; and 4) local painters who have captured the farm and vistas in their paintings. The script was adapted from Jodi Farwell’s essay and serves as the film’s voice-over with Farwell reading.

Post-production began in winter 2023 and includes: 1) rough, fine, and finish cut editing; 2) animation and motion graphics; 3) musical scoring and composition; 4) sound design, audio mixing and mastering; and 5) color design. The film was completed in summer 2024 and premiered on Sept 27, 2024 in Harrisville, followed by a screening at the Monadnock International Film Festival a week later. Local/regional screenings are being scheduled for Fall 2024 and Winter/Spring 2025. 

Audience 

The audience for the film includes, first and foremost, the residents of Harrisville, Nelson, and surrounding towns in the Monadnock region of NH. Potential local screening hosts include Historic Harrisville, Nelson In Common, the Harris Center, and the Historical Society of Cheshire County. Further afield, the film should be of interest to audiences in other New Hampshire and New England towns, as well as town historical societies and state historic preservation associations throughout New England. In addition, the film will be submitted to regional film festivals and public television stations in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.

Filmmaker

As founder of High Cairn Films, Chris Hardee creates documentaries focused on the environment, sustainability, and education that help illuminate a path forward. Recent projects include a feature-length documentary with other lead filmmakers on the destruction of forests for energy, and two short films on nature-based education for Antioch University New England.  These films have been accepted and won awards in national and regional film festivals and have been broadcast on Public Television stations in New England. Prior, Hardee co-founded and co-directed Monadnock Media, a non-profit media organization now based in Hatfield, MA, that continues to serve museums, parks, and historic sites nationwide. 

To Support the Film 

High Cairn Films is seeking donations for local screenings and promotion in the Monadnock region during Fall 2024/Winter 2025. Any donations will be used to cover time, equipment rental, and expenses. Throughout the three-and-a-half year life of the project the majority of the filmmaking budget — including countless hours, equipment, and expenses — has been donated by the filmmaker.

To support the film and filmmaking in the Monadnock region: ‘Good-bye to a House’ GoFundMe webpage.