HippCast

In Episode 27 of our monthly film-focused audio show, Digital Content Manager Christina spoke to Jennifer Bulcock, the inspirational powerhouse behind the brand new (and upcoming) Penistone Film Festival! This new event is a two-day celebration of silent cinema, coming very soon to a beautiful cinema in South Yorkshire: the Penistone Paramount.Built as the assembly hall for Penistone in 1914 and screening films ever since, this beautiful multipurpose picture palace has been a home for entertainment for over a century, much like our own Hippodrome in Bo'ness. The town of Penistone, like Bo'ness, is blessed with a picturesque train station and shares a proud industrial heritage too, being renowned for its steelworks.Jennifer and her team are hard at work, designing a fun and friendly festival to introduce new audiences to the magic of silent cinema with live music. The inaugural event will run over one weekend on the 18th and 19th of October, celebrating the cinema's heritage and encouraging local audiences to try something new. And it's not just about watching films! There are local art stalls, a photo booth, stunt performers, roaming characters and period re-enactments, plus an invitation to create and submit your own silent film to an esteemed panel of judges.Christina and Jennifer speak all about the program, the festival's beginnings and purpose, as well as exploring various tangents, including TikTok and contemporary short form video viewing, working class alienation in the creative industries, and the need to invest in local community spaces.We hope you enjoy, and follow PFF your favourite social media platforms to stay up to date with goings-on. Additional reading/ relevant links:All about Penistone Film FestivalFull English transcript of this episodeEnter your own silent film into the competition!Learn more about HippFest's trip to Tromso Silent Film Days

A month on from our fifteenth edition, we speak to some of our youngest attendees and recent silent film converts on their highlights from HippFest 2025! This episode contains two interviews: one with our 2025 Young Scot reward winner Rhiannon Byles, and one with three of our 2025 Young Programmers: Eve Jeffreys, Alanna Steel, and Helen Jockel recorded by Dave Barras (Strange Boat Films). In a neat link, Alanna was our 2024 Young Scot reward winner, bringing Eve along for the ride, and if interested to hear their reflections on their first visit to HippFest you can catch up on episode 14 here.Rhiannon also mentions her first experience of silent film with live music - a screening of Nosferatu at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, accompanied by Hugo Max - and you can catch up on our interview with Hugo last year in episode 19 here. So many lovely overlaps!!We hope this episode prompts some of your own fond reflections on your visit to HippFest this year. Remember to save the dates for the next edition: 18-22 March 2026!Relevant links:Read a full English episode transcript hereEve and Alanna's Edinburgh Silent Film ClubNeil Brand presents: Silent Comedy Triple Bill at DCAMore info on where to next find Hugo MaxReflect on a festival even further back in time by listening to 'Young voices on old cinema' numero uno (from 2023 - episode THREE)!

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.

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.

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.

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/

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. To get in the spirit of the fair, and of Louis Dixon himself, We thought it would be fitting to share with you an adapted version of the walking tour led by local historian and archaeologist Geoff Bailey about the Hippodrome architect Matthew Steele. 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 youthrough 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: 00:03:57 | Hippodrome Cinema (10 Hope Street Bo'ness EH51 0AA) 00:08:07 | South Street (11 South St, Bo'ness EH51 0EA) 00:09:41 | Corvi's and the old Station Hotel (5-7 Seaview Place, Bo'ness EH51 0AJ) 00:12:37 | The Star Cinema (17 Corbiehall, Bo'ness, EH51 0AW) 00:16:00 | 'Coffin Close' (63 Corbiehall, Bo'ness EH51 0AX) 00:17:59 | 'St Mary's Buildings' (195 Corbiehall, Bo'ness EH51 OAX) 00:19:26 | Seaforth (43 Linlithgow Road, Bo'ness, EH51 0DW) 00:21:28 | Matt Steele's cottages (Dean Road, Bo'ness, EH51 9BH) 00:22:42 | The 'Venetian Houses' (Cadzow Cres, Bo'ness EH51 9AY) 00:23:45 | Duchess Nina Nurses' Home (Where Cadzow Crescent and Cadzow Lane connect, Bo'ness, EH51 9AY) 00:25:29 | Matt Steele's bungalows (Cadzow Crescent, Bo'ness, EH51 9AZ) 00:26:11 | Masonic Hall (Stewart Avenue, Bo'ness, EH51 9NJ) 00:28:03 | Commission Street flats (Main St, Bo'ness EH51 9NG) 00:29:29 | Matty Steele Building (South St, Bo'ness EH51 9NF)