BT-07. Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

UK, Feature Documentary, 2022, 100 min

When Hipgnosis art students Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell began producing their legendary album covers in the 70’s, there was no Photoshop. When they wanted a picture, say, of a giant pink pig floating over London, they had to take a huge helium balloon of a pig and tether it to a smokestack high above the city. What could possibly go wrong? Because Hipgnosis was ahead of its time, and famously intertwined with rock excess, things went wrong a lot, sometimes spectacularly. Filmmaker Anton Corbijn fills his Hipgnosis history with case studies of album art from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, considered by many to be the greatest album art of all time, to Led Zeppelin’s mind-altering Houses of the Holy. This film is packed full of stories told about the often-hilarious dealings with Hipgnosis by regular folks like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Paul McCartney and Noel Gallagher. Great stories and incredible music from one of the most hedonistic eras in music history.

Directed by Anton Corbijn

Boulder Premiere