HippFest welcomes D/deaf audiences

Thanks to funding from the Hugh Fraser Foundation the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival has increased the provision of BSL and ENT (note taking) at Festival events this month (20-24th March).

All Talks and the Opening Night and Friday Gala screenings will be supported with BSL interpretation and ENT. Full details can be found in this film about HippFest and we would be grateful if you could share this with your networks:

Silent films tell a story or make a point visually with little or no dependence on the use of words

In the silent era people who were deaf could fully participate in this popular cultural form, as; “the silent film era inadvertently included deaf people to an extent unknown today. Deaf people participated in the industry as equal members of an audience, as pedagogical beneficiaries at school, as actors on the screen, and as subjects for film scripts” (Schuchman, 1988, p. 21).

According to Schuchman (1988), the value of silent films for deaf people was not in the use of intertitles, which were written in Standard English and often poorly understood by general audiences, deaf and hearing alike. Rather, audiences appreciated the silent films principally for the action and the expert use of facial and body expressions for communication by many actors and actresses.

The 9th Hippodrome Silent Film Festival known as HippFest, takes place 20-24 March 2019 and is a unique event in the Scottish festival calendar, taking place in Scotland’s oldest purpose-built cinema, the beautiful Hippodrome in Bo’ness.

Renowned for its warm and inclusive atmosphere, and its high levels of community engagement, the HippFest Festival attracts fans of silent cinema and live music from across Scotland and the UK.

HippFest Talks Programme

Discover more about cinema of the silent era at our afternoon Talks. Thanks to support from the Hugh Fraser Foundation all Talks will be enhanced by BSL and electronic note-taking.

The Birth of Horror
Wednesday 20 March | 14:00 | £6.60 incl. tea/coffee & cake | 1h 30m incl. Q&A

This illustrated talk will trace the love affair between silent film and the macabre, from Thomas Edison’s graphic 1895 Execution of Mary Queen of Scots to the collective Post Traumatic Stressin the aftermath of WWI that gave rise to German Expressionist nightmares like Dr Caligari (1920). Laraine Porter (De Montford University) will uses an selection of film clips to illustrate this talk. Performing live: Forrester Pyke (piano)

Holmes of the Movies
Thursday 21 March | 13:30 | £6.60 incl. tea/coffee & cake | 1h 30m incl. Q&A

Conan Doyle’s enigmatic detective character Sherlock Holmes became a film star with the birth of the movies. His first cinematic outing was as early as 1901 in a bit of nonsense entitled Sherlock Holmes Baffled. His film career is a fascinating one and this talk takes you into the foggy environs of Baker Street, presenting an overview of Sherlock’s celluloid adventures with illustrative film clips. Performing live: Mike Nolan (piano)
Join David Stuart Davies – a writer and performer who has written extensively about Holmes.

Peace on the Western Front
Friday 22 March | 13:30 | £6.60 incl. tea/coffee & cake | 1h 30m incl. Q&A

Towards the end of 1930, two veterans of the First World War, one German and the other British, made a film to impress upon younger generations that war, “is not a childish game, a glorious adventure”, but “a hideous ugly thing”. Released in 1931 the film gained a following among the burgeoning peace movement and became an unofficial film for the League of Nations Union. The soundtrack was recorded on discs, now sadly lost, so a script has been created from the synopsis in the original press brochure and accounts of the battlefields and war-ravaged towns written at the time. This script, along with music composed by Stephen Horne, will be performed live to accompany the Imperial War Museum’s (IWM) digital restoration of the print, at this special ‘work in progress’ screening. Introduced and presented by Dr Toby Haggith, Senior Curator at IWM
Dir: Fred Swann, Hans Nieter | UK | 1931 | N/C 12A | b&w | 35m + talk

‘Kitty the Telephone Girl’ and working women in early cinema
Sunday 24 March | 18:15-19:15 | £5

Inspired by HippFest Closing Night film Hindle Wakes, Dr Lawrence Napper (King’s College London) will give an illustrated talk focussing on the changing role of women and the expectations of society upon them, in the workplace and at home. Adapted from the 1910 play of the same name Hindle Wakes was controversial in its portrayal of a young working woman who rejects family and societal expectations. Will include clips from British films of this period which show independent working women, and which showcase the expansion of opportunities for women outside of traditional domestic roles.

HippFest – Supported by the BFI Film Audience Network as part of Changing Times: Women’s Histories