First ever adaptation of Kidnapped by Jazz Singer director to screen at silent film festival

The 1917 US-made production, which uses locations in New Jersey in lieu of filming in the Highlands, will feature alongside three 1920s shorts featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes on this year’s HippFest programme.

The festival, which sees films accompanied by live musicians at Scotland’s oldest purpose-built cinema in Bo’ness, will also show three pieces of amateur Scottish footage from the Moving Image Archive at the National Library of Scotland, including an experimental piece by a female director and a comedy about a man taking his boat out for an evening sail on the west coast.

Also on the programme is 1926 thriller The Bat, which has been cited by Batman co-creator Bob Kane as the inspiration for his character’s identity, while Saxophone Susy will feature three musicians on saxophone, piano and percussion to accompany the film.

Kidnapped was directed by Alan Crosland, who ten years later in The Jazz Singer created the first feature film using spoken dialogue.

Programme notes for the film state: “The New Jersey locations may be a poor stand-in for the Scottish Highlands and the scene at Queensferry may fudge the view across the Firth of Forth, but the film’s tartan heart is absolutely in the right place.”

Festival director Alison Strauss said: “We cannot wait to welcome audiences to the 16th edition of HippFest. This year’s programme contains a wealth of musical talent, both Scottish and international, with a spectacular selection of silent film, from rediscovered classics to revelatory new discoveries.”

HippFest will also screen Maurice Tourneur’s The White Heather, made in 1919, a melodrama about class, morality and social ambition. Kicking off the adventure in “Shetland castle... nestled amongst the heather-covered hills of Scotland”, the film features groundbreaking underwater sequences that enraptured contemporary audiences.

The Friday night gala screening of the 1929 film Why Be Good? includes a champagne reception and flapper-themed after party, with a dress code of Charleston champion or HippFest glamour. Meanwhile, a Roaring Twenties Charleston Workshop will take place during the festival, led by professional dancer Rowan Mitchell.

HippFest’s New Found Sound will see young musicians from across the Falkirk district to accompany shorts from the National Library Scotland’s Moving Image Archive.

Witch Craft is a piece from Edinburgh filmmaker Jean L Gray, a rare female presence in the male-dominated amateur film world of her time, which uses textured glass, ink in water and animated figures to create surreal visual poetry.

Outreach and engagement coordinator Jonny Walker said: “My favourite is Witch Craft, because it’s by a female director and is really experimental for its time. She uses DIY film techniques almost like today’s special effects.

“We are trying to find out more about her, she seems to have been prominent in an amateur film making club in Edinburgh.”

The film is to be both scored and performed by a group of the young musicians.

Sambrooke Scott, head of audience development at Screen Scotland, said: “HippFest has become one of Scotland’s most distinctive and admired film festivals, and this edition promises to be a wonderful celebration of everything that makes it so special.

“Showcasing rare and restored silent films with extraordinary live musical performances, the festival continues to bring the cinematic past thrillingly to life in its evocative home that is the Hippodrome.”

The 16th edition of HippFest will take place in and around the Hippodrome Cinema in Bo’ness, a pre-art deco picture palace dating back to 1912, from 18 to 22 March.