HippCast

Filmhouse are turning one! Technically tomorrow (Saturday 27 June 2026), but who's counting? In today's show we hear from Program Manager Raymah Tariq, who reflects on the first year since re-opening in June 2025. The discussion includes a peek behind-the-scenes at programming strategy, Filmhouse first birthday celebrations and the 'We Have A Cinema And We're Not Afraid To Use It&#...

In this month's episode we speak to silent film polymath Ben Model, discussing his recent publication The Silent Film Universe . Digital Content Manager Christina had just finished reading when she spoke to Ben,  and picked out a couple of chapters from which to discuss a few key themes: audience participation in creating the story, text in silent film, and the undercranking phenomena: all abo...

After a brief podcast break to deliver HippFest 2026, we're back in the audiosphere with the third iteration of our Young voices on 'old cinema' mini-series, featuring thoughts and reflections from some of our young attendees. In this month's release we hear from Kitty Volino, a 19-year-old student who tuned in online from the Scottish Borders, plus 16-year-old Izzie Middleton, who...

Can you BELIEVE it's only a matter of weeks before our sixteenth edition kicks off? Well believe it or not, it's true - and in preparation for last-minute booking quandaries we've prepared another Programme Picks episode to tempt you. This year Digital Content Manager Christina Webber chats to The Skinny 's Jamie Dunn and captain of the Hipp-ship, Festival Director Alison Strauss,...

Happy new year HippCasters! We're back in the audiosphere with a brand new episode inspired by the premiere of a new music commission for Jean Epstein's Finis Terrae (1929), premiering at HippFest 2026 . Digital Content Manager Christina Webber catches up with Cinetopia 's Amanda Rogers, plus musicians Dan Abrahams and Philippe Boudot as they begin creating a brand new soundscape for this film, se...

It's that time of year again! In today's episode - a festive special featuring plenty of yule tide tangents - we talk to author Sarah Cook about 'silent' Christmas. Digital Content Manager Christina Webber has questions: were Christmas movies a thing in the silent era? Would we recognise some of the tropes of today's Christmas film in the movies made a century ago? And why does...

We mark our 30th episode by inviting independent researcher Laraine Porter onto the podcast to chat with Digital Content Manager Christina about what was going on in the film world on either side of, you guessed it, 1930. The cusp of the 'thirties was a pivotal moment for cinema, with synchronised sound radically changing operations across production and exhibition. Previously loud and boister...

Hello listeners and welcome to Episode 29! In today's release we hear from Michael Coull, Cinema Programmer at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA), who chats to us all about one of our upcoming screenings: The Phantom of the Opera (1925) .  To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the release of this iconic film, Dundead - DCA's annual horror and cult Film Festival and programming strand - has...

In this month's episode we hear from three of our 2025 Young Programmers, who have been busy behind-the-scenes preparing our Autumn mini-season of silent film with live music. Alanna Steel, Helen Jockel and Eve Jeffreys share what it was like working together to choose the titles and their musical accompaniments, as well as explaining a little bit about each film and the variety of extra activitie...

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...

For June's release we caught up with two of our favourite film archivists Kathy Rose O’Regan and Robert Byrne, during a brief pit stop between screenings at Il Cinema Ritrovato⁠ , Bologna. Fresh off the back of presenting the new restoration of THE GARDEN OF EDEN (1928), accompanied by HippFest favourites Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius in  Il Cinema Ritrovato ‘s gorgeous Cinema Modernissmo, K...

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 nea...

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...

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 th...

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 , w...

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 lo...

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 M...

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...

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,...

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...

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 com...

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...

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...

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? We hear from Festival Director Alison Strauss who urges audiences to check out The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1933) either in-person or via live-stream , plus squeezes in every Frances Marion title under the guise of one: Just...

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 wi...