Michael Zahs speaking at Brinton Film Festival July 27th.

“The secret is out,” are the words local historian Michael Zahs uttered as visitors from Nebraska, Illinois, and New York attended the 22nd annual Brinton Film Festival in Ainsworth this weekend.

The festival is now Iowa’s longest running, and what used to be attended by mostly local residents has now gained the attention of visitors outside the midwest because of the documentary that focuses on Zahs and his Brinton film collection, Saving Brinton.

Zahs has just returned from a screening of Saving Brinton in Seattle with its directors Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne, who gave an update on the film’s journey of being shown around the world. Haines commented on working with Zahs, “It’s been a real honor and pleasure for us to work with Mike truly over the past five years and it takes a lot of courage to be in a documentary especially a feature and share your story with filmmakers and so we will be permanently indebted to Mike and Julie for allowing us to be in their lives so thank you very much.”

Zahs shared a variety of silent films from the Brinton collection including a clip showing an entire journey across the Brooklyn Bridge which hadn’t been publicly viewed in a century. Zahs will be in Woods Hole, Massachusetts next on July 31st for a screening at the Woods Hole Film Festival.