Image courtesy of Michael Zahs and Saving Brinton.

Over three decades ago Michael Zahs saved three truckloads of artifacts from the former Frank and Indiana Brinton collection including what are now known as some of the oldest films in existence.

The material was nearly thrown away, and now it’s being touted as an important find in early film history. A documentary recently premiered at the American Film Institute Film Festival in Washington, D.C., chronicling Zahs’ story called Saving Brinton. He recently returned and shared with KCII News what it was like to watch the documentary, “I cried all the way through it. It’s hard to see yourself up on the big screen, or at least it is me. And I knew what came before and came after each scene, and there were some pretty personal times that were filmed. My mother is in the film, and she’s been gone for 2.5 years. There’s just a lot of things that wouldn’t necessarily affect other people that way, but affected me that way.”

The retired history teacher says the films and documentary are getting attention across the country and overseas and it shows Iowa’s importance in the entertainment industry, “We’re so close to it, that I don’t think we understand how much of a world wide importance it is. And how much it is part of everybody’s history. And even if you’re not interested in film, it shows what people were like 120 years ago. Hopefully, 120 years from now there’ll be something that’ll showcase us like we’re showcasing people from then.” The Washington Times wrote, “In Mr. Zahs, Messrs. Haines, Richard and Sherburne have found one of the most unlikely, yet most likeable, heroes of contemporary nonfiction cinema.”

Hear more about Zahs’ trip to Washington, D.C., on the Washington Page on KCII.