Announcing 217 Films’ New Documentary “Glorious Morning: A Revolution Revealed”: Now streaming for free home viewing

Ashford, CT, Oct. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Connecticut-based independent filmmakers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of 217 Films announce that their new film project is a full-length documentary on the important painters who chronicled the American Revolution and our emergence as a nation. “Glorious Morning: A Revolution Revealed” is their tenth film in 20 years and the ninth “essay in film” by writer/director Michael Maglaras.

John Trumbull (1756–1843), The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775 (detail), 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery.

“John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, and Gilbert Stuart are the painters who chronicled the rising of our rebellion and the faces of those who brought about the Revolution that created a new world order,” commented Maglaras. “In this new film we celebrate their legacy and the inspiration we still derive from their glorious work.” 

Copley (1738-1815) the artist of radical resistance and rebellion. Peale (1741-1827) the great artistic entrepreneur of the Revolution. Trumbull (1756-1843) the master painter of both the scenes of battle and the scenes of surrender, as we brought the British to their knees at Saratoga and Yorktown. Stuart (1755-1828) the great painterly poet of the Revolution…creating with grace and humanity our iconography…the faces that became what we now understand to be our “founding mothers and fathers.”

“These painters were, in the case of Peale and Trumbull, men of action, who smelled gunpowder in the heat of battle as serving soldiers,” said Maglaras. “With Gilbert Stuart, we see a singular artistic figure avoiding the conflict but giving us, with his iconic portraits of George Washington and others, our first sense of ourselves as a nation.”

Glorious Morning uses more than 190 works of art celebrating the places and faces of American liberation and liberty. It was shot on location in Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

“As we continue to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of our republic, it’s time to also pause and celebrate the great tradition of American painting, which begins but does not end with Copley, Peale, Trumbull, and Stuart,” added Michael Maglaras.

Stream “Glorious Morning: A Revolution Revealed” for free, home viewing at this link: https://two17films.com/free-streaming/glorious-morning-a-revolution-revealed/

Explore the entire 217 Films catalogue – featuring documentaries on American art, history, and culture – all available for free home viewing at two17films.com.

Public screenings may be requested by contacting the filmmakers at this link: https://two17films.com/contact/

More about 217 Films:  

217 Films is an independent film company devoted to the American artistic experience.  In 2005, Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton released their first film “Cleophas and His Own” about the American painter Marsden Hartley’s epic narrative of love and loss. Maglaras both directed and played the role of Hartley in this film.  In 2008, they released a second film about Hartley called “Visible Silence:  Marsden Hartley, Painter and Poet” – the first-ever documentary on the life of Hartley. In 2010, with their film “John Marin: Let the Paint be Paint!” they established, through the first full-length documentary on this important painter, that John Marin was one of the fathers of American Modernism. These films, among other distinctions, have been shown to acclaim at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 

In 2012, they released “O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward,” and in 2013 “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show.” 2015 saw a new film “Enough to Live On: The Arts of the WPA” celebrating the ways in which Franklin Roosevelt used the arts to raise the spirits of the American people during the Great Depression. “America Rising: The Arts of the Gilded Age” (2017) is the record of the very rising of America through its art and culture. As a personal homage to art scholar and groundbreaking documentarian, Lord Kenneth Clark, they released “Civilisation and America” in 2020, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Public Television’s premiere of the BBC’s influential 13-part series Civilisation on the history of culture, man, and the Western world.

The first-ever full-length documentary on Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Give All to Love,” was shot entirely at the Emerson home in Concord, Massachusetts, premiering in Concord in 2023.

For more information:

217 Films Website:  www.two17films.com

Gilbert Stuart (1755 – 1828), George Washington (Vaughan portrait), 1795. Oil on canvas. Andrew W. Mellon Collection, National Gallery of Art.

About 217 Films

217 Films is an independent film company devoted to the American artistic experience.

Press Inquiries

Tami Burke
tamikennedy1 [at] gmail.com
https://www.two17films.com

A video accompanying this announcement is available here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vkypINDDMjk