MIDDLEBURY — When filmmaker and Middlebury College alum Simeon Hutner first turned the camera on his mother, Frances “Frankie” Hutner, it wasn’t to make a movie. It was a son’s way of holding on.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to extend my mom’s life, as much as I wished that I could,” Hutner said. “But maybe I could at least capture it and hold onto it by filming.”

That act of love and documentation evolved into “Traces of Time,” a deeply personal documentary screening at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival on Thursday, Aug. 21, at 5 p.m., with a special Q&A at Dana Auditorium. It is the winner of the festival’s Shouldice Family Prize for Best Vermont film. 

SIMEON HUTNER

The film follows Frankie, who died at age 95 in 2014, through the final six years of her life in her Ripton home, where she lived for more than two decades. It’s a meditation on aging, memory, love and resilience told through everyday moments, candid interviews, archival photographs and images of the land that shaped her.

Simeon Hutner — a seasoned film editor, producer and director — began filming not with a script, but with instinct. After his father’s death, he felt a need to preserve his mother’s presence. He referenced a quote from photographer Sally Mann: “Every image I make is an attempt to hold on to time, to make memory material.”

Over time, his mother emerged not just as the subject of a personal archive, but as the heart of a compelling story. 

“As a film editor, I’m trained to look at sometimes hundreds of hours of footage and ascertain if there is a story there, and if so, what that story is.” he explained. “And at a certain point, maybe a few years in, I thought, yes, there is a film here. I never knew what exactly was going to happen when I turned on the camera, and watching it unfold is kind of like being in the middle of a jazz improvisation.”

Filmed entirely by Hutner himself — camera, sound and direction — the process stayed intimate. Without a crew, Frankie was at ease. 

“I’ve seen this again and again in the documentary films I’ve edited: When there is a big crew, people tense up,” Hutner said. “If a friend or relative is shooting, even with just an iPhone, you often get much more intimacy and a sense of realness.”

While Hutner initially resisted including himself in the film, feedback from fellow filmmaker Gretchen Hildebran, a Vermonter, made it clear that his presence was needed. 

“I think I was nervous that the film wasn’t going to be able to convey what was needed, but by removing the excess narration, it actually freed the film up to convey even more than if I had been there explaining things,” he said. “Less narration also invites the audience in as a participant because they have to think a little more about what’s happening and interpret it, and I think that kind of involvement is critical to the success of a film.”

He also found that filming helped deepen his relationship with his mother. 

“We were both pretty reserved people and so there were many things that I just never brought up with her. But being a filmmaker and having the camera gave me license to ask questions that I wouldn’t have otherwise asked. And she responded,” he said. “Interestingly, because of my role as filmmaker, we became closer as a mother and son because we were spending so much time together shooting as she went about her daily life … So the conflicting roles had a positive impact.”

SCENES FROM FRANKIE’S LIFE

The film also highlights the places that shaped Frankie’s life — Middlebury, where she was born and raised, and Ripton, where she spent her final two decades. The narrative weaves in scenes filmed across both towns, alongside family photographs from her childhood on a Halladay Road farm.

FRANKIE HUTNER CRADLES her granddaughter Julia — son and filmmaker Simeon Hutner’s daughter — at home in Ripton, just before turning 95. The last six years of Frankie’s life were filmed and compiled to create “Traces of Time,” screening Aug. 21 at 5 p.m. at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival.
Photo Courtesy of Simeon Hutner

Frankie’s father, E.B. Cornwall, was a dairy farmer, lawyer and professor at Middlebury College — and the first president of the Vermont Farm Bureau. Frankie studied economics at Middlebury and went on to earn a Ph.D. in the same field at Columbia University, where she was one of the only women in the program. She later authored two books: “Equal Pay for Comparable Worth” and “Our Vision and Values: Women Shaping the 21st Century.”

The film includes archival photographs taken by Hutner’s great-grandfather, Henry Cornwall, a chemistry professor at Princeton. These images — some discovered in old suitcases and boxes, others were glass plate negatives — helped bring the past to life. 

“When we went to the farm on Halladay Road, I had not yet seen the photos of it as it was when she was growing up, so when she pointed out where the barns had been, for example, I just had to imagine it,” Hutner recalled. “It was really a different world, where the farming was done with horses, there was no electricity and cars were something new. Route 7 was still a dirt road and people still rode horses into town.”

One moment involving these photos and the filmmaking still lingers with Hutner. On Christmas, he gave his mother a photograph of her and her brother ski joring. 

“Her reaction to seeing the photograph for the first time in perhaps 70 years is etched in my mind,” Hutner explained, “and for me illustrates how alive the past is in our present lives, and how important it is, and how important our family members are to our own sense of self.”

Though “Traces of Time” is deeply personal, its themes are universally resonant — especially for anyone navigating the challenges of aging, caregiving or grief. 

“I think seeing someone like my mom, who lived her last years with such optimism and hope and humor and a palpable love of life even as her life became more and more restricted — seeing her do all that to me is inspiring and I hope that audiences feel the same way and see it in their own parents,” Hutner said. “They are heroic in their own way, and should be appreciated for all that they’ve done — and all they continue to endure. If this film helps someone see their own parent a little more clearly, or hold on to them a little longer, I’ll feel that I’ve done something worthwhile.”

Visual motifs throughout the film symbolize Frankie’s enduring spirit and connection to the land and nature, especially the birds.

“They were important because they symbolized, to me, her spirit and this sense of freedom, even as her body was aging and her movements were becoming, her life was becoming more restricted, there was always this sense in her of this freedom,” Hutner said. “And I think you can see that in the film.”

“I’m so excited to be screening the film in Middlebury, where my mom grew up and where scenes in the film were shot, along with Ripton, where most of the film takes place,” he emphasized. “I think it’s always interesting to see places you recognize in a film and I hope the audience here will respond to my mom’s experience, both growing up on Halladay Road, and living her last years in Ripton.”

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Hutner also edited the film “Walk With Me,” a personal documentary directed by Heidi Levitt that follows her and her husband, Charlie Hess, over the course of four years as they navigate life with his Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease. This film will be screened at Dana Auditorium at 2 p.m. before “Traces of Time.”

To purchase tickets for “Traces of Time” and other screenings, go to mnff2025.eventive.org. For more information about the film’s background and bonus scenes, visit tracesoftimethefilm.com.