HippCast

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival
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HippCast

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (HippFest) is Scotland's first and only festival of silent film with live music. This brand new podcast features insights from a variety of HippFest evndeavours: Q&As with performers, interviews with archivists, and plenty of other fascinating conversations about archive cinema. We hope you enjoy tuning in!

  1. MAR 15

    2025 programme picks from the HippFest team

    It's the annual 'programme picks' episode - a listener favourite! - and with less than one week to go, what better time to have another look over the line-up? Featuring plenty of additional film titbits, predictions, promises, admiration for musicians, and general chatter from the team working away behind-the-scenes to present HippFest's glittering fifteenth edition. Featuring the follow staff members and titles: HANNAH BRADLEY CROALL: Before the Face of the Sea (1926); With Reindeer and Sled in Inka Länta's Winterland (1926); Our Hospitality (1923); The Cave of the Spider Woman (1927). ABBIE DOBSON: The Swallow and the Titmouse (1920); The Pleasure Garden (1925). NATALIE ALLISON: Friday Night Gala - The Pride of the Clan (1917); Neil Brand: Key Notes. NELL CARDOZO: The Shamrock Handicap (1926); What the Water Remembers - The Dark Mirror (2025) and Exhibition at Bo'ness Library; New Found Sound. ALISON STRAUSS: Flora Kerrigan - Rediscover a Film Pioneer; The Near Shore: A Scottish and Irish Cine-Concert; Forgotten Faces (1928).Additional reading/ relevant links: Read a full English transcript of this episode.Learn more about the HippFest teamBook tickets to everything upcoming at HippFest 2025An illustrated overview of the HippFest 2025 programmeAs mentioned: Alma Reville: in the shadow of Hitchcock?As mentioned: In the Frame of the Father: Films made by Irish Priests

    1h 2m

  2. FEB 26

    Hitchcock's (silent) Heroines

    In today's conversation, we hear from Caroline Young, a freelance writer and author from Edinburgh, specializing in fashion, pop culture, and classic cinema. She is the author of various titles, including Hitchcock's Heroines and Single and Psycho, How Pop Culture Created the Unstable Single Woman. Alfred Hitchcock, and especially his wife and trusted collaborator Alma Reville, provide the link between this podcast episode and our 2025 programme... 100 years after its release, we will be screening The Pleasure Garden (1925), directed by Hitchcock, and edited and assisted by Reville, on Friday 21 March at 3PM. In addition we will be hosting an extremely rare screening of a key example of Reville's work without Hitch, The Constant Nymph (1928), at the Barony Theatre in Bo'ness on Saturday the 15th of March at 7:30PM. This special screening will be introduced by BFI Curator Dr. Josephine Botting, so do catch it if you can. Alma Reville meant everything to Hitchcock, personally and professionally. It is no exaggeration to say that she was his heroine. In this conversation, we learn about some of Hitchcock's on-screen heroines, his alleged fascination with blondes, and what he was like to work with. There is particular focus on the silent stars whose careers began with the venerated auteur, and the discussion considers Hitchcock's reputation for contentious working methods. Was he as formidable as is believed, or was his reputation part of a contrived press persona? Please note that this conversation contains slight spoilers for The Pleasure Garden. CONTENT ADVISORY: Murder, sexual misconduct.Additional reading/ relevant links: More info about Caroline Young Buy the book: Hitchcock's Heroines Book tickets to The Pleasure Garden (1925) Book tickets to The Constant Nymph (1928) Alma Reville: in the shadow of Hitchcock?Presented by Dr Jo Botting A full English transcript of this episode can be found here.

    39 min

  3. JAN 31

    Introducing: WHAT THE WATER REMEMBERS and THE DARK MIRROR

    Introducing our exciting new co-commission: WHAT THE WATER REMEMBERS, including the first film to be announced for our fifteenth edition, THE DARK MIRROR (2025)! Hear all about a brand new venture for HippFest, an exciting new joint commission with Flatpack Festival in Birmingham called What the Water Remembers. This project features a new film titled The Dark Mirror, made by artist Moira Salt, with a new score created by Tommy Perman and Andrew Wasylyk, which will premiere at HippFest 2025 on Saturday 22 March, 2025, before reprising at Flatpack Festival in May. Based on research into the Falkirk archives and using footage from the BFI National Archive, Media Archive Central England, Collection Eye Film Museum Netherlands, and the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, this creative non-fiction film brings some of the many stories of these waterways to life. It was brilliant to be able to chat to the team in the midst of this work, whilst they continue to develop the film and soundscape you will hear in March. The film and music are currently in production and promise to weave an engrossing, mythological tale fashioned from the rich history and cultural significance of canals... Tune in to hear all about it! Relevant links: More info on artist Moira Salt. More info on musicians Tommy Perman and Andrew Wasylyk. Mark your diaries! The What the Water Remembers exhibition opens at Bo'ness Library on Friday 14th February. Book your ⁠HippFest Festival Pass⁠ to get the very best value at HippFest 2025. As always a full English transcript of this episode can be found here: https://hippfest.wordpress.com/2025/01/30/hippcast-episode-22/

    46 min

  4. 12/21/2024

    Reflecting on (almost) 15 years of HippFest

    As you may be aware, HippFest 2025 (running 19-23 March) will be the Festival's fifteenth edition. This episode brings together some of the wonderful individuals that have helped shape HippFest, to reflect on the fourteen years thus far. When Digital Content Manager Christina set up these interviews, it quickly became apparent that many people close to the festival have a lot to share, and they love to talk about HippFest. Christina has cut these wide-ranging conversations into a perfectly podcast sized morsel, with some aspects getting a repeat mention (New Found Sound, Bo'ness, the Hippodrome, the musicians, Ali's programming). A huge thanks to and Emma Mortimore, Neil Brand, Nicola Kettlewood and Mel Selfe for sharing their fond memories of the Festival. We are so grateful for their input and for taking the time to share reflections with us. Useful links: Book a Festival Pass to get the best value at HippFest 2025! Browse some of the photos from previous editions on the HippFest Facebook page or the Falkirk Council Flickr. Read the Programme Notes from the 14 years of films thus far. Catch up on online content from previous years via our HippFest at Home playlist. Read a full transcript of this episode here.

    49 min

  5. 11/21/2024

    Jenny Gilbertson: 'A Real Illuminator'

    In today's episode we revisit our 2024 pre-festival programme of illustrated talks to share a rich conversation between Dr Shona Main and Professor Sarah Neely, on the fascinating life and work of Jenny Gilbertson. The original recording was inspired by the HippFest 2024 Opening Night Commission for a new musical accompaniment for Jenny Gilbertson's The Rugged Island: a Shetland Lyric (1933), on March 20th earlier this year. We are delighted that The Rugged Island will be reprised at the ⁠Soundhouse Winter Festival⁠ at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh on Thursday 28th November, complete with the HippFest commissioned music by Shetland-born musicians Inge Thomson and Catriona Macdonald.⁠ You can book your tickets here⁠! If you're new to HippCast, it's worth noting that ⁠Episode 12 ⁠of our output features Inge and Catriona discussing their approach to working together to craft their music for Gilbertson's beautiful film. If you are planning on attending the reprisal at #SoundhouseWinterFest, we recommend you tune in to that episode too. But for now we return to a fascinating discussion about Jenny Gilbertson herself. Enjoy! Relevant links Read a full English transcript of this episode ⁠via the HippFest Blog⁠. Browse ⁠the Soundhouse Winter Festival programme here⁠. ⁠The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1933) programme notes⁠, written by Dr Shona Main. ⁠Watch the illustrated presentation⁠ featuring a variety of archival images.

    47 min

  6. 10/30/2024

    Accompanying Nosferatu: in conversation with Hugo Max

    In today's show, we're delighted to hear from Hugo Max, musician, artist and filmmaker, ahead of his HippFest debut as part of our 2024 Taste of Silents season! Amongst various interdisciplinary achievements, Hugo performs live improvised accompaniment to silent films on solo viola, and has played chamber music at prestigious venues including the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, and St Martin in the Fields. He has been concertmaster of the Oxford University Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oxford Baroque Players and is a lecturer on improvisation and multidisciplinary practice at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Hugo travels to Bo'ness to join us at the Hippodrome on Saturday the 2nd of November to accompany the surreal 1922 cine fable Nosferatu, the first ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. A quintessential example of German expressionist cinema, and one of the most famous of all silent movies, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu continues to haunt audiences today with the indisputable power of its images. Digital Content Manager Christina Webber chats to Hugo about his silent film journey, his process when accompanying silent cinema, and the magic of surviving 1910s cinema spaces. Relevant links: A full transcript of this episode is available via the HippFest Blog. More about Hugo Max. More info about the upcoming Nosferatu (1922) screening.

    43 min

  7. 09/27/2024

    What can film students today learn from early cinema?

    As September comes to a close, students across the UK return to schools or higher education. To mark the start of a new academic year, we spoke to Dr. Paul Sellors, Lecturer in Film Theory, History and Criticism at Edinburgh Napier University and Programme Leader of the Film BA (Hons). HippCast Episode 18 considers what film students today can learn from early cinema: stylistically, contextually, and as a way to reconsider contemporary questions. The conversation touches on the various lenses through which we watch, study and try to understand early film including the intersection between early films and politics, public utilities and consumer behaviours; considers ideas of film ownership and authorship; compares early film viewing with scrolling TikTok feeds; and tackles perhaps the biggest and most challenging question of them all: naming a favourite silent film. We hope you enjoy this 'Back to School' episode and share it with any students you know heading off to start their journey in film education. As always, you can find a full transcript and a number of links to relevant publications cited throughout the episode via the HippFest blog. Happy listening!

    48 min

  8. 08/31/2024

    Keith Stata 'the movie man' and the Highlands Cinemas

    In today's show we hear about a very special cinema loved by its local community, Highlands Cinemas - not to be confused with the Highland Cinema in the Highlands of Scotland on Fort William High Street - this picture palace is in the Halliburton Highlands in Ontario, Canada. Digital Content Manager Christina Webber chats to the cinema's owner Keith Stata during the height of their busiest season. Our cinemas are three and a half thousand miles apart, but both celebrate that hallowed feeling invoked by a beautiful cinema space, the tangibility and materiality of our first cinema experiences, the curtains sweeping majestically in front of the screen, the carpets, the lights, the buttery smell of popcorn... All of these sensations are bound up with the time we first fell in love with the movies. Keith set about building the Highland Cinema in his backyard in 1975, and since then it has grown and grown, now housing five theatres and a museum featuring cinema related photographs, memorabilia, and an impressive vintage projector collection. They may not show silent movies, but Laurel and Hardy do make a cameo on the cinema signage! (See above). Earlier this year, Keith featured as the subject of a feature length documentary reflecting on his life's work, The Movie Man. Keith talks about his time in front of the camera, and paints an evocative picture of cinema going in the forests of Ontario - cats and bear included. What did a trip to the movies look like during his childhood? How to make the perfect iced cappuccino? And what does he think the future of cinema-going looks like? All will be discussed, and more. Relevant links: A full English transcript of this show can be found here: https://hippfest.wordpress.com/2024/08/31/hippcast-episode-17/ More info about Highlands Cinemas: https://www.highlandscinemas.com/ The Cinemas' 58 resident cats: https://www.highlandscinemas.com/cats/ THE MOVIE MAN (2024): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21916284/

    41 min
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About

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (HippFest) is Scotland's first and only festival of silent film with live music. This brand new podcast features insights from a variety of HippFest evndeavours: Q&As with performers, interviews with archivists, and plenty of other fascinating conversations about archive cinema. We hope you enjoy tuning in!

Information

  • Creator
    The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival
  • Show Website
    HippCast

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