In Tommy Haines’ and Andrew Sherburne’s 2017 documentary Saving Brinton, Iowa history teach Mike Zahs discovers a treasure trove of old film reels in a farm basement, including rare footage of Teddy Roosevelt and a never-before-seen film by Georges Méliès (A Trip to the Moon, The Impossible Voyage). Zahs then embarks on an international odyssey […]
Saving Brinton
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‘Hockeyland’, a new documentary from the makers of ‘Saving Brinton’, hits theaters this month
It’s been 17 years since Minnesota-born filmmakers Tommy Haines, JT Haines and Andrew Sherburne founded their independent production company, Northland Films, with a focus on nonfiction storytelling. In that time, they’ve produced, directed and released six film projects — all while Sherburne was busy founding and expanding Iowa City’s nonprofit cinema FilmScene. Their best-known documentary […]
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‘Saving Brinton,’ ‘Amelia 2.0,’ ‘Morris’ bring top IMPA Awards home to Eastern Iowa
The Iowa Motion Picture Association (IMPA) held its 27th annual awards this weekend, and Eastern Iowa brought home the lion’s share of the state honors. Amelia 2.0, filmed in Cedar Rapids and based on Cedar Rapids playwright Rob Merritt’s The Summerland Project, garnered a directing Excellence award (the festival uses this terminology instead of the […]
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A-List: ‘Saving Brinton’ explores a forgotten chapter of the silent film era
Setting up in small towns from Minnesota to Texas, the Brintons’ traveling cinema show was for most Midwesterners of the era a first encounter with moving images. Unfortunately, in 1919, seemingly at the height of the traveling show’s popularity, Frank Brinton passed away. When his wife died in 1955, her estate’s executor moved the collection to his basement — where it remained until Mike Zahs learned of its existence in 1981.
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Iowa City filmmakers announce dates for Barnstorming Brinton Iowa Tour of ‘Saving Brinton’
Saving Brinton FilmScene — Sept. 29-Oct. 5 Hot on the heels of its June premiere at the AFI Docs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, the documentary Saving Brinton, from Barn Owl Pictures (a collaboration between Northland Films and Bocce Ball Films) is coming back home to Iowa for a string of showings throughout the […]
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‘Saving Brinton’ selected for AFI Docs Film Festival
Saving Brinton, a Northland Films documentary that was awarded an Iowa Arts Council grant last year, has just received an honor of another sort: The film has been invited to make its world premiere at the prestigious AFI Docs Film Festival this June.
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100 years later, new audiences discover legendary outsider
In 1981, then-junior high history teacher Michael Zahs lucked into a treasure trove of relics from a Washington, Iowa basement. He took a chance on what might have been so many boxes of junk, because of their source — they had originally been owned by W. Frank Brinton, a man who had been known locally […]
