Following its spring premiere at AFI-Dallas, Stop the Presses is set to screen at a second major film festival.

Update: The Hot Springs screening is at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 24, followed by a Q&A.

Here’s the original press release:

DALLAS, Texas – The AMS Pictures documentary Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril has been selected for screening at the 17th annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, to be held Oct. 17 to 26 at the historic Malco Theatre in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival strives to provide unique cultural and educational opportunities for the documentary genre to advance as a meaningful art form and seeks to become the premier documentary film festival in the world.

“We’re thrilled to be screening at Hot Springs,” said producer-director Mark Birnbaum. “They started a tradition of rolling out the red carpet for documentary filmmakers long before that was cool.”

Producer-director Manny Mendoza points out that a work-in-progress version of Stop the Presses screened at last year’s festival. “It’s great to be able to take the completed film back to that knowledgeable audience,” he said. “It’s a nurturing atmosphere for documentaries.”

At its world premiere in April at the AFI-Dallas International Film Festival, Stop the Presses sold out theaters and wowed critics. The documentary was made by award-winning filmmaker Birnbaum and former Dallas Morning News TV critic Mendoza. It tells an important story about the role of print journalism in a free society, a role that is now under threat because of the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

Critics have called the film “an absorbing account that should appeal to anyone concerned about the future of democracy” and “surprisingly inspiring, as it points to the inevitable reinvention of an industry in need of new life.”

An educational DVD version of Stop the Presses, aimed at high school and university journalism classes, is for sale at www.amspictures.com. For more information, visit www.stopthepressesdoc.com or www.hsdfi.org. To request a screener or interview with the filmmakers, contact Tammy Nguyen Lee at 214.646.9309 or TNLee@amspg.com.

Manny Mendoza