HIPPFEST
U Uo
High Stakes
As HippFest in Bo’ness opens with a rare screening of 1923 adventure The Grub Stake, Nikki Baughan explores the life and
work of its irrepressible writer and director Nell Shipman
values
F or Alison Strauss, director of HippFest, The Grub Stake is an obvious choice for the opening night of the annual silent movie festival. ‘It epitomises our programming ethos, which out-of-the- ordinary i lm experiences fostering diversity and discovery,’ says Strauss. ‘We relish a chance to present a i lm made by someone whom most people have never heard of, and Nell Shipman is crying out to be celebrated. It’s almost criminal that she’s been effectively written out of i lm history.’
In a role that rel ects her own off- screen character, Shipman stars as feisty young Faith, lured to the Yukon by promises of marriage and gold. When she discovers she has been duped by her lover, she sets off on her own mountain quest for the precious metal, complete with thrilling chases, i ghts and a breathtaking clifftop i nale. Born Helen Foster-Barham in Canada in 1892, Shipman began a successful acting career in her teens but turned down a lucrative contract with producer Sam Goldwyn because she didn’t want to be ‘prettii ed’. Instead, she left the studio system in search of creative independence and became a voracious i lmmaker unafraid to take risks in the pursuit of her vision.
‘She for
known
became playing adventurous women, often i lming on location in hazardous landscapes,’ says Ellen Cheshire, i lm lecturer and author of Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema. ‘Her i rst big hit was God’s Country and the Women [1915], adapted from the novel by James Oliver Curwood, which she wrote and starred in. In 1918 she founded Shipman-Curwood Producing Company and produced, wrote and starred in Back to God’s Country [directed by David M Hartford]. Released in 1919, it had a controversial marketing campaign
ignored,’ little of her work remains in existence. ‘Once sound i lm had taken hold, many of the silent i lms were junked, forgotten says Cheshire. or ‘Shipman spent years trying to get those writing the history of Hollywood to acknowledge her and, when she was living in poverty, she wrote to the Motion Picture Relief Fund seeking support. Their reply, in 1969: “we can i nd no record of your name in any i lm credit”. Shipman died the following year.’
While Shipman’s story is incredible, it is, says Cheshire, far from unique, as more women were employed in the i lm industry during the earliest days of cinema than they are now. ‘That is a shocking and troubling notion,’ says Cheshire, who will be giving a talk at HippFest highlighting the achievements of Shipman and her contemporaries. there are movements around the world to address the gender disparity in i lm and television production.’ ‘That’s why
And
it’s also why HippFest is dedicated to celebrating the works of such i lmmakers. ‘Other women like Mary Pickford, Anita Loos, Alice Guy- Blaché and Lois Weber were inl uencing cinema, but I do think Nell was unique because of her irrepressible self-sufi ciency,’ says Strauss. ‘When you learn about her, you imagine that she would have changed the course of i lmmaking, yet it’s hard to trace her inl uence because she’s been overlooked by i lm historians. And I don’t think she thought of herself as a champion of anyone’s cause; she just wanted to make entertaining movies for audiences to enjoy.’
The Grub Stake, Hippodrome, Bo’ness, Wed 22 Mar; HippFest runs from Wed 22–Sun 26 Mar, full programme released Tue 7 Feb.
capitalising on her nude scene: “don’t book this movie unless you want to prove that nude is not rude”!’
Although
richly deserved.
the i lm was popular and proi table, it did not bring Shipman the success she so ‘Her abandoning of the Hollywood studio system in pursuit of her own way of making i lms was disapproved of,’ says Cheshire, ‘and caused a rift with the establishment that would plague her until she died.’ establishing Nell Shipman Productions with co-star Bert Van Tuyle, for whom she left her theatrical impresario husband Ernest, Shipman also left Hollywood to make i lms in Idaho, including The Girl from God’s Country (1921) and The Grub Stake. Sadly, however,
After
26 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2017