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.

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!

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.

In today's episode, Digital Content Manager Christina Webber talks to Eva Hielscher and Oliver Hanley, Artistic Co-Directors of Bonn Stummfilmtage, with the 40th anniversary edition just a couple of weeks away!

Eva Hielscher and Oliver Hanley have been working in research, archiving and curatorial mediation of audiovisual cultural heritage at home and abroad since 2008. Their different but complementary experiences span a diverse spectrum, ranging from film restoration and the publication of DVD or online editions to curating film-related exhibitions and film series for museums, cinemas and international film festivals. This will be their fourth year as Artistic Co-Directors.

The discussion in this month's release paints a vivid picture of the 1000-strong open air silent film 'concerts' that fill eleven warm August nights. Conversation meanders from the audience to favourite moments and challenges thus far, to the upcoming 2024 programme, international reach of online presentation and dreams for the future.

We hope, like us, that this fuels your interest in the Bonn International Silent Film Festival, and hope to one day see you there. If you can't make it along this year in person, the 2024 programme features many titles available to watch on demand for 48 hours, beginning 48 hours after the film's live presentation. A copy of the streaming schedule is included alongside the full show transcript on the HippFest blog.

Further relevant Festival links:

Episode 15 celebrates an important June date in the Bo'ness calendar, the Bo'ness Fair. Visitors to HippFest will remember that the Bo'ness Fair Queen, who is crowned each year at the fair has joined us on several occasions at our HippFest Closing Night Gala to award prizes. The Bo'ness Children's Fair Festival, to give it its official name, was founded in 1897 and continues to be a major cultural event in Scotland, beloved by Bonessians at home, and further afield. Louis Dixon, the original proprietor of the Hippodrome, produced local topicals for the cinema, making films documenting the fair from as early as 1912 right through to his death in 1960.

Architect of the Hippodrome (1911), Matthew Steele has a lasting legacy in the streets of Bo’ness. His practice lasted from 1905-37 and in that time he created many private homes and public buildings in the town, in the Arts and Crafts, and later art deco moderne style.

Born in Bo’ness and trained in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Steele worked mainly in Bo’ness throughout his life and his designs are often very recognisable. Adapted from our online video tour released as part of HippFest 2021, this audio production hosted by Geoff Bailey will guide you
through Bo’ness to discover the buildings created by this influential architect.

So spend the afternoon in Bo'ness strolling from one building to the other as you listen along; or if you're tuning in from overseas and are curious about a building, you can do the exact same using Google Maps.

Happy Fair Day to all who celebrate!

Learn more about Bo'ness Children's Fair Festival: https://www.thefairday.com/

A full English transcript of this episode is available to read if preferred here: https://hippfest.wordpress.com/2024/06/28/hippcast-episode-15/

See the approximate locations of each point of the tour below:

In Episode 14, Digital Content Manager Christina Webber speaks to three first-time HippFest attendees about their experience at Scotland's first and only Festival of silent cinema and live music.

Hear a collection of insights on this year's programme from Festival Supporter Pass Holder Uliana Ischenko-Iten, and our two Young Scot Reward Pass Holders Alanna Steel and Eve Jeffreys. All three share a surprise that the screenings were so busy, an appreciation of our Platform Reels screening of The Flying Scotsman on the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway, plus mentions of The Organist at St. Vitus Cathedral, and our closing night feature The Wind. Opinions on the post-screening entertainment at our Friday Night Gala differ, and a warm appreciation for Hippodrome Cinema shines through from everyone reflecting on their time in Bo'ness.

Save the date! HippFest will return next year from the 19-23 March 2025. We hope to see you then.

• You can access a full transcript of this episode here.

It's the annual 'programme picks' episode - a listener favourite! - and with only one week to go, what better time to have another look over the line-up?

You can check out the full programme and everything else you need to know ahead of HippFest 2024 here: https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/silent-film-festival/

Today's episode is centred around the upcoming HippFest 2024 opening night on Wednesday 20th March, The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric. Directed by Jenny Gilbertson, nee Jenny Brown. HippFest is proud to present this extraordinary film with the world premiere of our new music commission created by award winning multi instrumentalist and composer from Fair Isle, Inge Thomson, collaborating with another Shetland born musician, Catriona Macdonald, who is considered to be one of the world's leading traditional fiddle players.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy, ahead of our second pre-Festival presentation premiering on Friday 23 February, which will dig a little deeper into the extraordinary life and career of Jenny Gilbertson...

Relevant links

In Episode 11 we mark one full calendar year since starting the show by tantalising you with a bit of background about some of our events from the 2024 Festival Programme, revealing both an illustrated talk and an exciting hands-on workshop that will both be part of our exciting line-up. So in the first revelation of 2024 ... (drum roll) ... we are delighted to welcome upcoming HippFest 2024 guest, Jenny Hammerton!

Jenny is the wonderful woman behind Silver Screen Suppers: the wonderful world of film star dining and drinking, a blog documenting the dishes of Hollywood icons from the silent era (and beyond). If you want to try your hand at concocting Lilian Gish's lemon pie, or trying Rudolph Valentino's 'secret spaghetti sauce', head over to Silver Screen Suppers and browse the 8000+ tried and tested recipes which await.

In today's episode Digital Content Manager Christina Webber, a self proclaimed highly food-motivated individual, chats to Jenny about the origins of Silver Screen Suppers, some of the standout successes and failures Jenny has sampled along the way, the bizarre and delightful world of Eve's Film Review, Joan Crawford's aversion to bar stalls and her passion for candlelit dinners, and the ultimate conclusion that TikTok is the contemporary consumer's Cinemagazine of today.

The full 2024 programme will be released on Tuesday 6 February, and tickets for both events will be bookable then. Jenny is also offering Festival Pass Holders an exclusive discount on books purchased directly from her store, details of which will be sent out in the exclusive PassHolder ahead of programme release - so if you're keen to grab a Pass early, click here whilst there's still some left! For now, though supper's served! We hope you enjoy the episode.

Various relevant URLS

In today's episode we hear from Gregg McNeill of ⁠Darkbox Images⁠, discussing the tangibility of analogue processes and why wet plate collodion (a Victorian photographic technology) endures to this day.

Gregg lives and works in Larbert as a photographer and

Excitingly, Gregg is offering a special perk for Festival

In conversation with Digital Content Manager (and podcast wrangler) Christina - who incidentally, is also an analogue photographer - Gregg discusses the fundamentally physical process of shooting 16mm film, how lens-based technology has affected how we see and tell stories, the beauty of the collodion process, and the value of physical photographic ephemera.

Relevant links:

In today's release we are delighted to share a conversation that took place earlier this month at the University of Edinburgh, hosted by Jane Sillars, Programme Director of the Masters in Film, Exhibition and Culture, along with Lizelle Bisschoff, who runs the Film Curation Masters at the University of Glasgow. The conversation featured the participation of Lisa Hoen, Director of the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF), who made a pit stop in Edinburgh on her way from Norway to the Reykjavik International Film Festival. The event and the following dialogue grew out of a research visit to TIFF's Silent Film Days, undertaken by HippFest Director Alison Strauss and Nell Cardozo, HippFest Development and Engagement Officer, in April 2023.

In the discussion, you'll hear how HippFest and TIFF's Silent Film Days are carving out a space for silent film with live music in contemporary cinema programming, and about some of the considerations of film curation in this specialised area. Lisa's experiences programming art house and archive film in the Arctic Circle are invaluable, and we are grateful to be able to share this insightful conversation. Expect consideration of some of the challenges to silent film programming, alongside wider topics such as the crucial importance of cinemas as social spaces, and the transformative power of live music with silent cinema. We hope you enjoy!