Chester native’s animated short tells of Romaine Tenney’s ‘Love of the Land’ Film to be presented by Van Alstyne at Springfield Cinema

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Sixty years ago, just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 12, 1964, Weathersfield volunteer firefighters were called out to the Tenney farm, where a multi-building blaze glowed brightly in the late night summer sky. Romaine Tenney, a 64-year-old farmer whose lifelong home was to be taken by the state the following day to make way for I-91, had set his barns on fire. He  then nailed himself inside his home before setting it on fire as well.

On Thursday, Sept. 12 and again on the Saturday, Sept. 14, Chester native Travis Van Alstyne will be presenting his short animation about the last year of Tenney’s life, Love of the Land at the Springfield Cinema 3, 26 Main St. in Springfield. The presentations will be the last stop on his tour of the state, and is physically closest to Romaine Tenney’s farm.

As a child growing up in Chester, Van Alstyne learned about Tenney’s story and his fascination with it grew through the years. As a Green Mountain High student, he now recalls, he and friend took a late night drive up to Weathersfield to the site of the Tenney farm. Van Alstyne went on to graduate from GMUHS in 1999, then attended the Savannah College of Art and Design before returning to Vermont, where he works as a web designer for Ben & Jerry’s. But Tenney’s story stayed with him.

In 2019, he began working to memorialize Tenney’s story, called Love of the Land, using a technique invented in the early 20th century called “rotoscoping,” which involves using a segment of film (or in this case video) and tracing the parts of the segment that you want frame by frame. Those can then be integrated into backgrounds or into live animation. The light sabers in the Star Wars films are an example of the rotoscope process. See an example of  the process here.

To create eight minutes and 38 seconds of animation, Van Alstyne had to trace and color more than 3,000 frames of live action. That took more than 1,000 hours over three years. The film looks at Tenney’s last year as the state of Vermont pressured him to take the $13,600 it offered for the 60-acre farm he had lived on since his birth in 1900. Aside from a stint in the U.S. Army, Tenney worked that land his entire life without a tractor or motor vehicle, cutting his firewood and pumping his water by hand.  Love of the Land starts a year before his death, then moves to six months and then a few days.

Van Alstyne’s script is written from Tenney’s point of view and his day-to-day observations are voiced by Waterbury farmer and filmmaker George Woodard with background images by Julianna Brazill of Winooski and music by Ida Mae and Lila Specker, who grew up in Andover.

What’s left of the Tenney farm

In late August, Van Alstyne and The Telegraph visited the site of Tenney’s farm, which sits under Exit 8 on I-91. At the Park and Ride next to the highway there is an impromptu memorial Romaine Tenney — the stump of a maple tree cut close to the ground and encircled with stones and planted with flowers. The memorial was constructed by a contractor who the state had hired to pull out the stump of the tree cut down in 2021 because it was deemed unsafe. The contractor just couldn’t bring himself to pull the stump out.

There’s also a picnic shelter bearing the inscription “Romaine Tenney Memorial Park” and an interpretive sign that explains the site including the words “When Romaine refused these offers, the State implemented the instrument of eminent domain.” It goes on to note that the house, barn and shed were destroyed by fire on Sept. 12, 1964 and “Despite the efforts of the local fire department, Romaine Tenney perished in the fire.”

Van Alstyne said he’s visited the site before but never read the sign and was surprised at how the state soft-pedaled the story of Tenney’s death.

While many have seen Tenney’s suicide as a protest against the progress that would change Vermont or a statement about the power of government, Van Alstyne says he has never seen Tenney’s story as political. It was rather the choice of a man who was at home on his land and would not be at home anywhere else.

“He was one of nine children and the only one who stayed on the farm,” says Van Alstyne. “He wasn’t political. He never even attended a town meeting.”

The Springfield dates will be the last of the public theatrical showings of the film. Van Alstyne’s Love of the Land tour of Vermont has included stops in Essex, Montpelier, St. Albans, Middlebury, Arlington and St. Johnsbury. With the tour done, Van Alstyne will be turning his attention to animating another Vermont icon – The Barnard Panther. He describes the film about the last catamount shot in Vermont as a nature documentary from the point of view of the mountain lion.

The showings of Love of the Land will include a presentation by Van Alstyne and a Q&A, all lasting about 40 minutes. Van Alstyne told The Telegraph that the audience’s participation has often been interesting and insightful.

The film and presentation by Van Alstyne will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday Sept. 12 and at noon on Saturday Sept. 14. Tickets are $7.50 each. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling the box office at 802-885-1009.