WASHINGTON — If you screen it, they will come. It’s not movie heaven, it’s Iowa.
Decades ago, Iowa history teacher Michael Zahs discovered a treasure trove of silent films owned by Frank Brinton, who famously screened early shorts to rural American audiences from 1895 to 1917.
That journey is shown in the new documentary “Saving Brinton,” making its world premiere at AFI Docs on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Sunday a 4:15 p.m. at E Street Cinema.
“Mike happened upon an amazing collection of Frank’s entire estate, including five hours of film,” filmmaker Andrew Sherburne told WTOP. “These were the films that introduced motion pictures to rural audiences. … Mike found these films 30-some years ago and has been working diligently ever since to bring them back out into the light. It’s finally happened and that’s what this movie’s all about.”
Turns out, this collection of silent-movie gold was simply sitting in a man’s basement near his school.
“I taught junior high school in Washington, Iowa, and the house where these were in the basement was right near the junior high,” Zahs told WTOP. “By chance, I ran into the man cleaning out the basement. Three days later, I moved three truckloads of things out of the basement. … We moved 150 films, 700 magic-lantern slides, records, and sound recordings starting about the Civil War to 1915.”
Which films were in this treasure trove?
“There’s all kinds of films and they’re each incredible in their own way,” filmmaker John Richard told WTOP. “There’s documentaries [that] were once called ‘actualities,’ which might be as simple as some footage from Burma or Egypt. There’s footage from the World’s Fair. There’s trick films, some of the earliest special effects [of] Georges Méliès and Segundo de Chomón, countless other films that really run the gamut of what was available. I think the latest film in the collection was produced in 1908.”
What’s Michael’s favorite film in the collection?
“The one I’ve said is my favorite is a man’s legs, his body isn’t in the film, and there’s a sow and ten pigs,” Zahs said. “I like it because: Why was it taken? Who was the intended audience? Why did it survive? Did it survive because it was popular, or did it survive because they never showed it?”
As you can see, Zahs is quite the character, whom the filmmakers knew was worth documenting.
“We got a tip from a mutual friend who knew Mike was up to something,” Sherburne said. “Mike had been showing these in a very small town, Ainsworth, Iowa, about 500 people, for years. … Once word spread all the way up north to Iowa City, which is where we’re based 20 miles away, we went down to meet Mike and see what he had. We went down initially just to see these films … but we came away knowing there was something much more. … We knew right away we had a charismatic leading man.”
Now, Zahs is having the once-in-a-lifetime experience of traveling on the film festival circuit.
“It’s a whole part of my life I didn’t expect to experience,” Zahs said.
As for audiences, it’s a window into the past that ties directly into our current age of documentation.
“I think there’s mirrors between the golden age of documentaries, which I think we’re in right now, and this early opportunity to show people the world through moving pictures,” Sherburne said. “Frank Brinton wanted to bring the world to Iowa, and we want to bring Iowa back to the world.”
Listen below for the full chat with subject Mike Zahs and filmmakers Andrew Sherburne and John Richard:
