SAVING BRINTON TO HAVE WORLD PREMIERE AT AFI DOCS

SAVING BRINTON TO HAVE WORLD PREMIERE AT AFI DOCS IN WASHINGTON, DC & SILVER SPRING, MD JUNE 17-18

In a farmhouse basement on the Iowa countryside, eccentric collector Mike Zahs makes a remarkable discovery: the showreels of the man who brought the moving picture to America’s Heartland. Among the treasures: rare footage of President Teddy Roosevelt, the first moving images from Burma, a lost relic from magical effects godfather Georges Méliés. These are the films that introduced movies to the world. And they didn’t end up in Iowa by accident.

Amid the old nitrate reels are the artifacts of William Franklin Brinton. From thousands of trinkets, handwritten journals, receipts, posters and catalogs emerges the story of an inventive farmboy who became America’s greatest barnstorming movieman.

As Mike uncovers this hidden legacy, he begins a journey restore the Brinton name and return the films to big screen glory in the same small-town movie theater where Frank first turned on a projector over a century ago.

By uniting community through a pride in their living history Mike embodies a welcome antidote to the breakneck pace of our disposable society. “Saving Brinton” is a portrait of this unlikely Midwestern folk hero, at once a meditation on living simply and a celebration of dreaming big.

Public Screenings at AFI Docs

Saturday, June 17 at 4:15 PM
AFI Silver Theatre – Theater 2
8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910
In-person: Directors Tommy Haines, John Richard and Andrew Sherburne and film subject Mike Zahs

Sunday, June 18 at 4:15 PM
Landmark E Street Theatre – Theater 7
555 11th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004
In-person: Directors Tommy Haines, John Richard and Andrew Sherburne and film subject Mike Zahs