Saving Brinton

A 2017 documentary film from directors Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne, Saving Brinton centers on Iowa farmboy William Franklin Brinton who, from 1897 until his death in 1908, traveled the American heartland and showed his silent films to anyone he could, becoming “America’s greatest barnstorming movieman” in the process. Former history teacher Mike Zahs gets the credit for finding Brinton’s original nitrate show reels in the basement of an Iowa farmhouse and then restoring them. One film even includes footage of President Teddy Roosevelt and another is a previously lost Georges Méliès short. The film screens tonight at 8:50 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, where it shows again at 7:30 tomorrow night. Admission is $10, $7 for Cinematheque members and those age 25 and under. (Niesel)