Saving Brinton

Saving Brinton
Directed by
  • Tommy Haines
  • Andrew Sherburne
Starring Michael Zahs
Music by Michael Kramer
Cinematography [John Richard]
Production
company
Barn Owl Pictures
Release date
  • June 17, 2017 (2017-06-17) (AFI Docs)
  • May 18, 2018 (2018-05-18) (United States)
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Saving Brinton is a 2017 American documentary film about the efforts of Iowa resident Mike Zahs to preserve a large quantity of reels of film from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that he found in the basement of a farm house.[1] It premiered at AFI Docs on June 17, 2017 and internationally at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It has been hailed as “a cinephile’s delight” of The Hollywood Reporter[2]. It was directed by Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne.

Synopsis

In a farmhouse basement on the Iowa countryside, eccentric collector Mike Zahs makes a remarkable discovery: the showreels of the man who brought moving pictures 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. The old nitrate reels are just some of the artifacts that belonged to 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 to restore the Brinton name that takes us to The Library of Congress, Paris and back for a big screen extravaganza 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.

Reception

Wesley Morris, critic-at-large for The New York Times, calls the film "celebratory. poignant" and that "the average documentary would gawk. This one reclassifies" [3]

Pamela Hutchinson of The Guardian depicts the film as an "absorbing, heartwarming tale" and that "there’s genuine warmth to the documentary."[4]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praises the film as "endearing, affectionate" and that "zealots are plentiful in the film history world, but ones as amiable as Zahs are as rare as the movies he doggedly preserved."[5]

The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday describes the film as "an audience favorite at AFI Docs" and as "a revelatory homage not just to film as a constantly evolving art form, but also as a fulcrum for community."[6]

References

  1. ↑ Nollen, Diana (September 10, 2017). "'Saving Brinton' documentary captures intersection of 2 men from separate centuries". The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ "'Saving Brinton': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  3. ↑ "Review: In 'Saving Brinton,' an Inveterate Accumulator Finds Treasure". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  4. ↑ "'How did some of cinema's greatest films end up in an Iowa shed?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  5. ↑ "Film exhibition advocates are the stars in affectionate documentary 'Saving Brinton'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  6. ↑ "Also Opening". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
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