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The Story of Film: A New Generation opens at two dozen theaters this weekend — Laemmle Royal in LA, Museum of the Moving Image in NY, Music Box Theatre in Chicago and Brattle in Cambridge. It’s a mix of arthouses, cinematheques, museums and even a few multiplexes for Mark Cousins’ follow-up to his 15-hour, 2011 opus The Story Of Film: An Odyssey. (This one clocks a relatively brief three hours.)

Several theaters are programming repertory series with the release, “which we feel will elevate its profile and continue the conversation,” said Kyle Westphal, head of theatrical sales for Music Box Films, the distributor for both installments.

A New Generation debuted at Cannes to strong reviews, Deadline’s here. Now, Westphal said, the first film, only available in standard definition, has been remastered in HD and both works will be released in a Blu-ray box set. The earlier work, which essentially played...

Independent film distributor Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American distribution rights to documentary feature “Hockeyland.”

Directed by Tommy Haines (“Saving Brinton”), the film follows rival high school hockey teams in Minnesota’s North Country, one of the breeding grounds for hockey greats who go onto to collegiate and professional play, including the National Hockey League (NHL). Fast on-ice action is paired with an observational approach to examine two communities and their teen heroes through debilitating injuries, off-ice troubles, family health concerns, and the expectations of being a future star in the NHL.

“Hockeyland” is produced by Tommy Haines, Andrew Sherburne, and J.T. Haines, executive produced by Carson Kipfer and is a production of Northland Films, a Midwest-based nonfiction film company. The film has played leading documentary film festivals including Doc NYC, Big Sky, Seattle, Milwaukee and RiverRun.

Greenwich co-president Ed Arentz said: “Tommy and Andrew are Minnesota natives and as...

There many layers in Andrew Sherburne and Tommy Haines’ “Saving Brinton,” a documentary that follows historian Michael Zahs after he discovered 100-year-old showreels in an Iowa farmhouse basement. The reels belonged to William Franklin Brinton, the man who brought moving pictures to the heartland.

“One of the things that drew us to Mike right away is that he’s a great storyteller. These objects that he saves, he’s not just saving the physical object — he’s saving the stories,” Sherburne said following a screening of his film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series.

Zahs was preserving not only Brinton’s films, but also the legacy of the projectionist who traveled throughout the Midwest in the early 20th century and brought silent cinema with him. It’s that priceless film history that the magnetic Zahs tries to keep alive in the community. When Sherburne and Gaines set out to make their film,...

Chicago – In the early years of film and filmmaking, from approximately 1890 through 1930, an astounding 75% of films produced are considered “lost,” with no surviving reels, never to be seen again. Recently, an Iowa man named Michael Zahs finally convinced the University of Iowa to research and archive the Frank Brinton Collection, a cache of early films that barnstormer Brinton would show all over Iowa in the 1890s, on through the early decades of the 20th Century. What was found in that Collection is the subject of “Saving Brinton,” co-directed by Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne.

The story of “Saving Brinton” is a fascinating combination of Iowa niceness, a saver named Michael Zahs, and the right type of storage that preserved the films. Zahs is a historian who would often lecture about Frank (and wife Indiana) Brinton, after taking on their collection from the estate in the 1980s, but initially could find...

A heartwarming new documentary tells the story of the history teacher who stumbled upon the Brinton Collection, a unique archive of films from the earliest days of moving pictures

Michael Zahs thinks of himself as a saver. “I like to save things,” he says, “especially if it looks like they’re too far gone.” This retired history teacher from Iowa, now in his 70s, has amassed quite a collection over the years: stray animals, farm implements, even a church steeple. He can trace the lineage of the peach trees in his yard back to 1800. Nothing he has saved, however, has been quite as remarkable as the Brinton Collection – a mammoth set of films, lantern slides, posters and projection equipment from the first years of cinema, and even earlier. There are two exciting things about these artefacts. One is that during the more than three decades after Zahs took delivery of...

MaryAnn’s quick take… A charming tribute to one remarkably dedicated cinema fan and historian, and to his decades-long hard work to save an essential piece of the pop-culture past and cultivate its story for the future. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto) women’s participation in this film

(learn more about this)

Who’da thunk that a small town in the rural American Midwest would be such a hot stop on a global tour of the history of cinema? Thirty years ago, former history schoolteacher Michael Zahs, of Washington, Iowa, was gifted a collection of old film memorabilia from the estate of Frank and Indiana Brinton, a husband-and-wife team of entertainment impresarios who brought fun, news, and visions of distant lands to audiences across the heartland of America in the days before radio, TV,...

Anyone who loves movies is bound to love Mike Zahs, the genial Iowan at the center of the documentary co-directed by Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne. And anyone who loves movies is bound to love Saving Brinton. This delightful film, recently showcased at Doc NYC and scheduled for theatrical release next year, centers on Zahs' efforts to preserve the legacy of an early 20th century pioneering showman who traveled throughout the Midwest projecting silent films to awestruck audiences.  

Zahs, a former history teacher whose long white beard and portly physique qualify him for work as a department store Santa,...

“Saving Brinton” will premiere at this year’s AFI Docs Film Festival, taking place from June 14 – 18. Set in rural Iowa, the film follows history teacher Mike Zahs as he uncovers the century-old showreels of Frank Brinton, one of America’s first motion picture impresarios, and sets out to premiere the films at a historic local opera house. Zahs’ findings include rare footage of President Teddy Roosevelt, the first moving images from Burma, and a lost relic from magical effects godfather Georges Méliés.

Check out our exclusive trailer for the film below.

Read More: Why Quentin Tarantino Producer Richard Gladstein Ditched Indie Film to Run the AFI Conservatory

The film hails from Barn Owl Pictures, and it’s helmed by “Gold Fever” and “Husker Sand” co-directors Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne, with cinematography by John Richard.

“As Midwestern filmmakers, we’re excited to show what’s buried beneath that blanket of...