Bo'ness Hippodrome gears up for film which celebrates the bicycle's role in women's liberation

People may or may not know the humble bicycle has been credited with doing more to emancipate women than anything else in the world and The Freedom Machine, which will be shown at the Hippodrome from 2.30pm on Saturday, September 16, documents this fact

Edited by Scottish film curator Jo Reid, the film explores what freedom looks like for women cyclists over the last 100 years. Using archive footage from the UK’s film

archives, this entertaining compilation shows the ways women have used the bicycle to find freedom and independence on the road, the race-track and beyond.

Accompanying the archival footage is a soundtrack by Glasgow-based sound designer and composer Cat Hawthorn, who brought a bike into the recording studio to

capture the percussive sounds that permeate The Freedom Machine’s soundscape.

The Hippodrome event will feature an in-person introduction and post-screening Q&A with Jo Reid.

Alison Strauss, arts development oficer and Hippodrome programmer, said: “After the excitement of the UCI Cycling World Championships coming through our local

streets we’re filled with enthusiasm to dig deeper into what bikes mean to so many of us in our everyday lives and what they have meant to our mums, grannies and great-grannies.

"This joyous celebration of women on two-wheels reminds us of the pleasures of freewheeling with the wind in our hair – and helmets, of course – and I’m sure folk will leave the cinema inspired to get on their bikes.”

Visit the website for tickets and more information.