Get involved with World Mental Health Day in Exeter

With World Mental Health Day fast approaching, The Mind Your Head Committee implore the students of Exeter to get involved with mental health events in the community and on campus.

What’s happening this Thursday? Yes, of course. The usual crush at Rococo’s. But what else is happening this Thursday? In fact, this Thursday is World Mental Health Day and this year you can get involved with Exeter’s very own tribute to the global awareness push for all things that affect your mind.

“In fact, this Thursday is World Mental Health Day and this year you can get involved with Exeter’s very own tribute to the global awareness push for all things that affect your mind.”

The event is taking place on the 10^th October between 10am and 5pm at the Phoenix Arts Centre on Gandy Street.

World Mental Health Day was first celebrated in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health. The federation’s original aims of raising awareness, educating people on the breadth of its effects and celebrating the global scale of available services are still paramount today. With recent headlines about waiting lists for eating disorders patients, misguided Halloween costumes in supermarkets, and a lack of acknowledgement of the severity of criminal reports made by mental health sufferers, we clearly cannot afford to sweep mental health under the carpet.

But why would we attend this event, we hear you cry? This event is something that us students love… free! With workshops and tasters available in tai-chi, circus skills and massage, we find it hard to believe there isn’t something which will appeal to everyone, especially those on a tight budget.

With the region’s leading mental health charities Mind, Rethink Mental Illness, Recovery Devon, Stonham and Devon Partnership NHS Trust all taking part, it is set to be a great day.

We couldn’t agree more with Andrew Hawkins, event organiser, who has said that he is ‘proud that the mental health community have been able to come together to create such a great event that will hopefully bring our community together and help forge stronger bonds between us all.’

So why not, eh? Mind Your Head challenge you to meet us there and try something new. After all, it’s a great cause and as nice as it is, we can’t just stay in the Forum forever! Click here for more information. See you there!

The Mind Your Head Committee

Find out more about promoting mental health awareness on campus by liking the Mind Your Head Facebook page. How important is mental health as an issue on campus? What is your experience of the services provided? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose.

'All different, all Equal': Exeter Respect Festival 2013

Image credit: Respect Festival

On 1st – 2nd June, Exeter’s Belmont Park played host to the annual Respect Festival.

This year witnessed a record turnout of over 23 000 visitors, who came to enjoy the festival’s various music and dance performances, food stalls and activities. The festival aimed to promote diversity, as well as broadcast the message of anti-racism by celebrating a range of cultures.

The city’s park was transformed as numerous performers appeared on stage, the local community was represented by a variety of stall-holders, music and dance workshops were organised, children could get involved in a range of activities, and there was an opportunity to taste food from around the world.

The event was coordinated by Paul Giblin, who said, “This was our biggest celebration of diversity yet, numbers indicating that an incredible sixth of the city’s population came out to an event with an explicit anti-racist message.

We were able to showcase local communities and campaigns in a way which was both entertaining and educational, with an amazing celebratory atmosphere underpinned by values of social inclusion encapsulated in our ‘all different, all equal’ slogan.”

Respect is run entirely by volunteers, and began in 1997. The festival has grown enormously since then, with a growing number of visitors every year. Respect Festival has demonstrated how effectively and successfully Exeter’s diverse population can be celebrated in a fun, vibrant and accessible way.

Rachel Gelormini

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Secrecy and scandal: Greek tragedy comes to campus

As the curtains are drawn and silence falls across the room, the Chorus move in unison, as they foreshadow the travesties that are yet to occur…

A typical rehearsal for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest extravaganzas of the year: Exeter Classics Society’s annual play, Euripides’ Hippolytus.

With last year’s production of The Bacchae gaining the place of runner-up in the Student Guild’s “Event of the Year” award, the stakes are certainly high this year, but the rehearsals display incredible promise.

Joseph-Désiré Court, La mort d’Hipòlit, 1828.
Photo by Pilar Torres

Hippolytus follows the story of the eponymous hero, son of the legendary King Theseus of Athens, and the troubles that ensue when he refuses to worship the goddess of love, Aphrodite, in favour of Artemis, the goddess of chastity and hunting. Aphrodite has launched a rancorous plan to make Hippolytus’ stepmother, Phaedra, fall in love with him. As a sick insomniac Phaedra confesses her love for her stepson to a shocked audience of the Chorus and her nurse, she also declares that she will starve herself to keep her dignity. The nurse tells an enraged Hippolytus the truth, and although he swears an oath of secrecy, Phaedra nevertheless finds out… and hangs herself. When Theseus returns to find his wife dead, he assumes she was raped by Hippolytus and places the blame upon his son.

The question remains: will Hippolytus be able to protest his innocence, or will he be condemned to a terrible fate by his own father?

Using Ben Shaw’s translation, the Classics Society has created a unique viewing experience. Touches like the live cello music at the scene where Phaedra’s death is revealed add to the pathos and heighten an already emotionally charged production, full of powerful solos from the leads.

There is also some clever staging, with the use of a silhouette to portray Phaedra’s suicide in abstract, in line with the Greek tradition of not depicting death on stage.

Another feature which really stands out is the Chorus, who in some respects make this production. The use of only five members as opposed to the standard fifteen allows the choral odes to be performed, with actions complimenting the words of the story to very effective and moving dramatic effect.

One thing is for sure – this year’s spectacle is not to be missed. Hippolytus is being performed in the M&D Rooms in Devonshire House at 7PM on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th March.

Hershil Kotak

 

RAMMbassador Day

Never been to the RAMM before? No not the Ram student bar, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter’s brilliant museum just off Gandy Street. Voted ‘Museum of the Year’ in 2012, the RAMM has recently undergone a huge refurbishment. Far from the stuffy museum trips that haunt many people’s childhoods, a visit to the RAMM is more like entering a swish art gallery, with every object being beautifully and thoughtfully displayed. One museum award judge even referred to it as “a magical place”, reflecting the way one room transports you to our planet’s prehistoric origins and the very next immerses you in Exeter’s Victorian past. There’s an immense variety.

Photo by Joshua Irwandi

Whether you’ve been before or not, make your way down to the RAMM on Saturday 2 March: ‘RAMMbassador Day’. 11 students from Exeter, known as ‘RAMMbassadors’, have each chosen an object from the museum’s huge collection of artefacts. After in-depth research surrounding these (including liaising with museum curators), the students have prepared informative and dynamic talks about their chosen artefacts. Their enthusiasm is clear and after each talk you will find yourself convinced that the object you have just heard about is the most important in the RAMM, only for the next to make you think exactly the same about a completely different museum piece!

Based on each RAMMbassador’s particular interests and expertise, the talks range from the huge and ancient to the small and much more recent.  This offers a great introduction to the museum’s diverse collection, reflecting the variety of the RAMM’s one million objects. All this in bite-size five minute chunks, making the talks a nice break from learning in long lectures!

So why not wander down to the RAMM on Saturday, March 2 to support your fellow students and learn about some amazing objects and the historical insights that these can offer. Talks are running all day from 10:30am until 3:30pm. And, the best part, the RAMM is free entry for all…very student friendly!

By Emma Holifield

Cuddly Toys and Cinema Classics: It's a Valentine's Day competition! – WINNER ANNOUNCED

Image credit: Paramount Pictures

Happy Valentine’s day loyal Screen readers!  And our winner is…Emily-Rose Rolfe, who tweeted us this review of Serendipity:  “Serendipity is beautiful – it restores your faith in fate, love, and New York City.”  Thanks to everyone who entered and enjoy the film of your choice at Picturehouse Emily! 

Whether you’re a singleton looking for love or contentedly coupled-up, Valentine’s Day is a big deal.

 

Some call it a soul-sucking, commercially-driven enterprise while others wholeheartedly embrace all manner of cuddly toys in the name of the long-dead saint.

 

Here at Exeposé Screen Online, we like to leave the snarking to the cynics and as testament to that, we are bringing you an exciting competition!

 

The Exeter Picturehouse Cinema is celebrating Valentine’s Day with a line-up of classic films on February 14^th and Exeposé Screen are offering you the chance to win two tickets to one of the films.

 

The evening begins with Audrey Hepburn’s heart-rending Roman Holiday about a European princess whose trip to Rome is complicated by meeting a dashing young journalist (Gregory Peck). It is followed by another Hepburn-classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the story of the young and eccentric Holly Golightly as she cavorts around New York City. To conclude, Picturehouse presents a screening of the definitive romantic drama film, Casablanca. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, Bogart plays Rick Blaine, a man torn between his love of Ilsa Lund (Bergman) and his virtue in the city of Casablanca during World War Two.

 

To enter the competition all you have to do is write us a review in up to 140 characters of your favourite romantic film. Be as silly or serious as you like, and you can send us up to three different reviews!

You can tweet it to @ExeposeScreen (and give us a follow while you’re at it), write it on the Exepose Screen facebook page, or just give us an email at exepose-screen@xmedia.ac.uk. Remember to also message or tweet us your name and contact details.

 

Example:

PS I Love You: dead husband writes to wife. Tears guaranteed & soppy in every sense of the word. Best aspect: Hilary Swank is never bad!

 

It doesn’t matter if you want to make a date of it or are simply looking for a fun way to spend an evening – give it a go!

 

Find out more information on the day on the Exeter Picturehouse website.