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Year: 2017

Live: Mr Jukes serves up sass and brass

Written by Millie Nettleton on . Posted in Music.

There’s a rather blurry photo of myself, my best mate, and Jack Steadman at Leeds Fest 2014 about 161 weeks down my Instagram feed. We were waiting to watch Kelis, who was an hour late — probably still warming up her milkshake — when we spotted him climbing the tent’s central support pole.

When he was finally coaxed down, we chased him through the crowd, snapped a quick photo, thanked him profusely, and then ran away, out of the festival arena, so overwhelmed at our audacity we forgot to stick around for Kelis.

She was supposed to join me on Sunday the 24th, when Jack Steadman would grace the stage again, newly christened as Mr Jukes — but she had resits. What a bummer.

Expecting to miss her the duration of the concert, I was thrilled to return home at midnight, tired and sweaty. I had danced my little booty off, as had the rest of us gathered at Manchester Academy Two. It seemed, as an audience, we even surprised Mr Jukes and his entourage, all of whom were grinning like fools by the time the night was through.

Steadman even told us “No really, you are the best audience yet.” The beauty of a gig like that is, the more they enjoyed themselves, the more we did.

After a little routing around and finding out what had prompted this seeming rebirth of who was once Bombay Bicycle Club, I discovered à la his own article in the Guardian, that Steadman had travelled to America from Europe, only going east and not using air travel. It was on this global voyage that he wrote most of the music for his new Album, God First.

He talks about his discovery of Japanese ‘jazz kissas’, apparently cafés with collections of american Jazz which was too expensive to own privately. It was here he heard the ‘Grant Green’ track that inspire the song titled — you guessed it — ‘Grant Green’.

This song, the album’s most popular single, is emblematic of the Mr Jukes sound: an electronic backbone reminiscent of BBC, and a powerful brass section that has the ability to take hold of your body and make you shake what your mama gave ya.

The whole gig was a firecracker from alpha to omega, but I particularly enjoyed their performance of Lauryn Hill’s ‘Doo-wop That Thing’. Perhaps it was the element of surprise, but when one female vocalist not only sassed her way through the chorus, but rapped the lyrics flawlessly, I was left in a state of awe.

The talent on stage was truly incredible, each member having the opportunity to freestyle solo, followed by rapturous applause and whooping.

If I were made to pin point my favourite thing about the night, it was probably watching Steadman smile bashfully as we lapped up every lashing of funk and soul that was thrown at us.

I’ve always hypothesised when listening to him sing on BBC tracks that you can literally hear the smile in his voice. That night, my theory was tested and proven.

His smile was probably the physical manifestation of that amalgamation we all desire; he was doing the thing he loved so well that he was making an entire room love it too. That smile was the knowledge that, in Manchester Academy Two, his music had moved us all, to a literal extent. He hit it out the park.

Chancellor announces extra £400m investment in the ‘Northern Powerhouse’

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in News, Opinion.

On Monday at the Conservative Party conference, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced plans to further invest in the ‘Northern Powerhouse.’

Hammond explicitly promised an extra £400 million of funding directed towards improving transport within both the North and the Midlands.

The Northern Powerhouse has been a focal point of Conservative Party policy since the Chancellor’s predecessor George Osborne announced it in 2014. It was at the heart of the party’s main policy pledges at the conference, as some are critical that the government has become predominantly focused on the Brexit negotiations, neglecting Northern Interests.

Hammond’s speech was one of many at the party conference in Manchester attempting to modernise the Conservatives after the disappointing general election result and the general feeling of negativity surrounding the party regarding policy and leadership.

The Chancellor’s speech did not start off as he might have hoped as he appeared to make an unplanned gaffe referring to Manchester being in the North East.

The speech’s key focus was on transport and infrastructure, specifically focusing on rail networks and roads. The Chancellor promised £100 million for new road plans in the North. This extra funding is projected to enable 33 new road networks across the North which includes 10 in the North East, ten in Yorkshire, and 13 in the North West.

The primary focus of the new investment is the high speed rail network with £300 million being pledged to be spent connecting HS2 rail networks with those outside the HS2 parameter such as the East Midlands and the North East as HS2 in its current form will only connect Manchester and Leeds and excludes many other areas covered in the ‘Northern Powerhouse’.

This reflects the government’s aim to create a ‘Northern Powerhouse Rail Network’ connecting the entirety of the North of England and the Midlands. The motives behind the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ could not have been clearer as the Chancellor stated that he wants to close the economic divide between the North and the South East, creating similar economic and transport structures to London.

The North remains unconvinced. Responding to Hammond’s £400 million pledge, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, stated that “electrification across the Pennines was promised in 2011 but today the Chancellor was silent on this.”

Tim Farron did not let Hammond’s Manchester gaffe go unremarked: “At the beginning of his speech Hammond made it clear that he thought Manchester is in the North East. Maybe the Conservatives also think Cumbria is in Sweden? It would explain why they’ve stopped giving us any money.”

He added: “£400 million is a paltry amount… under the Conservatives the North is being left in the dark.”

Five talking points from Malaysian Grand Prix

Written by Jack Greeney on . Posted in Sport.

Max Verstappen in dominant victory

Let’s start at the end: Max Verstappen finishing in first position to win the Malaysian Grand Prix (GP). The Dutch youngster, the day after his 20th birthday, succeeded in both a dominant victory over Hamilton and generally making everyone feel ancient. The surprise result was a highly welcome one after a torrid season of reliability issues for the Red Bull man. From P3, Verstappen fended off Bottas then shocked pole-sitter Hamilton with a late inside lunge on lap four and never looked back.

Lucky Hamilton ahead but fearful

Hamilton may be 34 points ahead but will be concerned about Mercedes’ recent lack of pace. Singapore qualifying was a relative disaster for the usually dominant German team and, despite qualifying strongly in Malaysia, Hamilton admitted to a ‘pace deficit’ after the race; Verstappen overtook and comfortably extended his lead. So far, luck and talent have dragged him through but Vettel will have Hamilton worried. He started last but flew to fourth in an impressive Ferrari. “We have some work to do,” said Hamilton.

Vettel and Stroll: post-race collision

An ease for Hamilton’s worries, however, would be the possibility of a gearbox change five-place grid penalty for Vettel after a truly bizarre crash with Stroll occurring during the cool-down lap after the race had finished. The Ferrari was destroyed, left-rear wheel detaching and removing the rear wing. Vettel accused Stroll of “not looking”; in truth, neither driver was solely responsible, both moving into one another. Vettel rode Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber back to the pits.

Perez battles illness to compete

Sergio Perez drove through illness to finish a strong sixth, describing the race as “the most physically demanding” of his career. Struggling to breathe during Friday practice and feeling unwell all Saturday qualifying, Perez required intravenous drip to continue — with intense heat and humidity, the Malaysian GP is tough enough already! The Mexican dedicated the result to his country after its horrendous September earthquake.

Goodbye Malaysia

After 19 years on the calendar, the Malaysian GP will be dropped from the 2018 season after a government funding withdrawal. The palm tree engulfed Sepang circuit has provided plenty of memories over the years, Räikkönen eating ice-cream under red flag surely the most treasured among them. Vettel will leave with good memories too, winning here more than any other. Max Verstappen, however, goes down as the final victor of the Malaysia GP.

Review: On Body and Soul

Written by Jamie McEvoy on . Posted in Film.

Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi has broken all the rules of romance films with her latest project.  Winning the Golden Bear in Berlin earlier this year, On Body and Soul follows the disjointed, awkward yet beautiful relationship between an abattoir manager, Endre — played by big screen debutant Morcsányi Géza — and new quality-control inspector Maria.

Endre is a reserved character, who lives a passive life with a disabled left arm.  He appears to live a lonely life, livened up only by his tiresome and garrulous HR supervisor Jenö.  However, after glimpsing Maria stood outside his window, hiding in the shadows, his monotonic life is illuminated.  The flirtation between the two characters starts off slow and dysfunctional, mostly due to the socially awkward nature of Alexandra Borbély’s Maria.

Yet, after the revelation that they both share the exact same dreams every night — Endre dreams he is a stag and Maria that she is a doe – their romance blossoms.  In their connected night-fantasies they run together through a picturesque snowy forest, foraging for food, and sipping from icy streams.

Enyedi’s surreal and mesmerising feature is an exquisite blend of the banal and the abnormal.

The unusual backdrop of a slaughterhouse is somehow turned into an ethereal and living organism, captured marvellously by the cinematography of Máté Herbai. On Body and Soul is not of the same ilk of anti-meat films such as Netflix’s Okja or Simon Amstell’s Carnage, yet it without a doubt creates sympathy for the bovine subjects that are waiting to be slaughtered, through beautiful close-ups of cow eyes and muzzles.

At times. the film adopts an almost documentary-type feel to it, and the way in which the mundane working activities of the abattoir are transformed into poetic movements is reminiscent of Mercedes Álvarez’s Mercado de Futuros (2011).  Despite the juxtaposition between the tangible slaughterhouse scenes and the soothing, divine dream sequences, there is just as much delicacy and tranquillity in both worlds.

On Body and Soul is an excellent feature which, with the introduction of the shared dreams concept, goes from understated realism to romantic fantasy.  It has quite rightfully been selected as Hungary’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Films at the 2018 Academy Awards, and will hopefully make it onto the nominee shortlist.  An unconventional love story, Enyedi’s beautiful picture will pluck at the heart strings as much as it does boggle the mind.

An unconventional love story, Enyedi’s beautiful picture will pluck at the heart strings as much as it does boggle the mind.

4/5

Banquets binned while rough sleepers go hungry and food bank reliance soars

Written by Madeleine Coffey on . Posted in Opinion.

Manchester’s issue of homelessness remains impossible to ignore. According to recently conducted research, the numbers of rough sleepers in the city have quadrupled since 2015.

One in five people in the UK are living below the poverty line, and since opening its doors in 2013, the Manchester Central Food bank has given out 4014 three-day food parcels to families across the city.

These are problems we witness around us day in and day out. Although, what many of us remain oblivious to is the shocking scale of corporate food waste, which remains very much behind the swanky closed doors of many Manchester hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets.

The ‘food waste scandal’ has popped up from time to time in certain sections of the media but I wonder how much of it is really entering our collective consciousness. Perhaps it is something that has to be seen to be believed.

I became aware of the sheer magnitude of this waste first-hand while working a catering shift at one of Manchester’s most prestigious hotels. Even after the staff had tucked into the ‘leftovers’ there remained trays and trays of untouched food. My instructions were to simply to bin it all and be quick about it.

I asked if this could be packed up and handed out to those on the streets that I passed on my way into the hotel, but my supervisor simply muttered something about practicalities and the ticking clock.

My supervisor was not a bad person, and the organisation she works for, whilst not driven by a social mission, would very happily bask in the good PR of a well-publicised food-recycling scheme. So I wondered, what are the barriers to tackling the profligate waste of food that occurs every day in our cities?

As highlighted by Tristam Stuart, founder of ‘FeedBack’, an environmental organisation that campaigns to end food waste at every level of the food system, this is not about “rotten stuff” being thrown away.

I’m sure as students, we are all guilty of the crime of allowing the needless wilting of perfectly good salad leaves, and have discovered many a forgotten loaf in the bread bin. However, these minor misdemeanours pale into insignificance when compared with the sheer scale of daily corporate food waste. This food is fit for human consumption and yet gets sloshed to the bottom of bins, fated either to join the UK’s 400 million tonnes of waste buried in landfills and shipped overseas per year, or to be scooped up by one of the many rough-sleepers taking their chances with potential illnesses in order to fill their bellies for the night.

It is estimated that around one-third of all food produced is wasted. This amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste per year, as stated in the UN Food & Agriculture Report in 2011.

With 5.8 million people in the UK living in ‘deep poverty’, unable to afford everyday essentials like food, and the homeless currently fearing the worst winter crisis for 20 years, action must be taken to address such astronomical squander.

“We need to move away from our broken food system where food that is fit for human consumption is ultimately going to waste while thousands of people in the UK and globally go hungry,” says Ben Murphy, a spokesperson for FeedBack in an exclusive Mancunion interview.

Charities, such as FeedBack and ‘The Real Junk Food Project’ (TRJFP), are among those who have recognised the potential of food waste to provide aid to those in need, such as the homeless. These charities attempt to overcome the cosmetic standards of supermarkets placed on farmers, overcautious sell-by dates of supermarkets and general poor planning of food shopping by consumers — both at household and corporate levels — through redistributing this waste and placing pressure on big corporate names.

From TRJFP’s food waste pop-up restaurants that provide meals “for anyone and everyone, with a focus on those in need on a pay-as-you-feel basis” to FeedBack’s ‘Gleaning Network’ that reallocates rejected fresh fruit and vegetables from farms to those struggling, efforts to change how we view our “waste” are clearly increasing.

However, more remains to be done. With the hospitality and food service sector accounting for the third largest producer of food waste in the UK (WRAP statistics, 2017) and the number of homeless people in need ever-growing, the concept of valuable, nutritious food needlessly being cast aside can no longer be a model that we simply live with.

Soubry: We need “intelligent discussion” on international students post-Brexit

Written by Alex Whitcomb on . Posted in News.

Anna Soubry has made an impassioned plea for the government to take a lenient approach towards immigration post-Brexit.

At a conference fringe debate organised by liberal-conservative think tank Bright Blue, the former Health Minister said that Britain should stay within the single market, and that the arguments that immigration has put a strain on areas such as public services were based on “myth”.

When asked specifically about students, she said that the way non-EU students are currently treated should not be the model the government applies to EU students once post-Brexit.

“Certainly in relation to students from India, they have felt unable to get places because of exactly that, the restrictions that are places on the places, and so they have gone almost in their droves to Canada and Australia.”

Soubry stated that the UK would benefit on fewer restrictions on student migration.

“If we have an intelligent discussion about the huge values of overseas students to our country we’d make progress.”

“Here’s some facts: we know the overwhelming majority of students return home to their countries, in some instances sadly they’re not able to be get to their home country.

“Having students from overseas to come to this country is something we should be profoundly proud of, and we should be opening up our borders and saying we welcome you.”

Professor Rob Ford of the University of Manchester, who was also on the panel, stated that this is in line with public opinion.

“The public, first of all thinks students are economically beneficial, secondly support them coming, and thirdly, if you ask them straight up if you think student migrants are migrants, they say no.”

Ford added that flawed use of opinion polls with regards to immigration may lead to international students being treated within the generality of immigration.

“Some sections of immigration have never been an issue to the public, but they get pulled into the debate because they never get asked about separately.”

Nobel Prizes 2017: the most exciting discoveries in science

Written by Jack Barton on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

Last week, the 2017 Nobel Prize winners were announced for the categories of Medicine or Physiology, Physics and Chemistry. The winners for each category shared the 9 million krona (£825, 000) awarded by the Nobel Foundation committee in Stockholm, Sweden, and their work highlights some of the most exciting ongoing international research.

Starting with the announcement on Monday last week, the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiological was awarded to Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young for their work on the genetic building blocks of circadian rhythms.

Also referred to as body clocks, circadian rhythms are crucial for life and the successful functioning of organisms. For example, one such circadian rhythm most people will be familiar with is sleep.

The work of Hall, Rosbash, and Young identified the genes which govern these biological clocks. Prior to their work, it was observed in cells that the levels of a protein known as PER increased during the night and decreased during the day in a 24-hour cycle. Their collective work showed that the presence of certain genes coded for the regular increases and decreases of PER over the course of the 24-hour day and in turn the body’s natural clocks.

Cumulatively, this body of work has implications in medicine for illnesses such as schizophrenia, which have been shown to be linked to faulty circadian rhythms.

The Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne for the discovery of gravitational waves and the development of the detector, known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), sensitive enough to detect them.

Their work validates a key hypothesis of Albert Einstein’s, devised over 100 years ago, arguing for the presence of gravitational waves based on his theory of general relativity. The first detection of gravitational waves was in 2015, forming from two black holes over one billion lights year away from Earth which collided and distorted the fabric of space-time.

It is not the first time that gravitational waves have been associated with a Nobel Prize. In 1993, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to two US scientists for their observation of binary pulsars suggestive of the existence of gravitational waves.

The Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson for their roles in the development of cryo-electron microscopy. Their culminating work led to the development of an imaging technique which allows for the exploration of structures at an incredibly high resolution.

Their work has enabled present-day researchers to image biomolecules at an atomic level and this has helped contribute to our understanding of organic structures such as the Zika virus.

Although the Nobel Prize committee focuses on individuals in science, it has been noted again that this is not representative of the scientific process in reality.

Professor Kip Thorne, speaking to The Guardian, said “the prize rightfully belongs to the hundreds of LIGO scientists and engineers who built and perfected our complex gravitational-wave interferometers, and the hundreds of… scientists who found the gravitational-wave signals in Ligo’s noisy data and extracted the waves’ information.”

This is a recurring criticism of the Nobel Prize. It has been argued that the award should instead focus on discoveries rather than individual scientists as a way forward.

Nonetheless, this year’s awards have identified some of the most exciting discoveries which are having a direct impact on our understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit.

Review: Goodbye Christopher Robin

Written by Eloïse Wright on . Posted in Film.

From the title onwards, Goodbye Christopher Robin is an adamantly bleak take on the creation of Christopher Robin and his friend Winnie-the-Pooh. It falls into the category of films that could have been memorable but didn’t quite make it. In terms of acting, structure and content, it constantly comes across as unrealistic and often quite twee.

Similar to this biopic is Chris Noonan’s equally quaint Miss Potter (2006) which explores the origins of the classic British children’s tales of Peter Rabbit, although Miss Potter had a slightly more upbeat tone and focused much more on the publishing of her stories and illustrations, as Beatrix Potter was not an established playwright and novelist like A.A. Milne was.

The film sets out to cover two main storylines, both deeply rooted emotional traumas that get unrealistically resolved – A.A. Milne’s suffering from PTSD, alongside the negligence of his son and the fame that was pushed upon Christopher Robin as a child.

“Isn’t it funny/How a bear likes honey/Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!/I wonder why he does.” from Winnie the Pooh’s first chapter does not ring as pleasant after watching a shell-shocked A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) react to the buzzing of bees on a walk with his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston). This particular narrative was dealt with somewhat clumsily, as Gleeson embodies a British WW1 soldier very convincingly, but quite soon in the story overcomes his PTSD by jumping on balloons which mimic the sound of bullets.

The parents are unequivocally self-absorbed, although it is his wife Daphne — a very glamorous and business orientated Margot Robbie — who is clearly made to be the most unlikeable of the two. She appears cold and unattached from her child, though this could be due the amount of mental and physical effort of keeping up an incredibly hard upper-lip English accent, and makes her entire role uncomfortably one-dimensional.

A full sequence is dedicated to watching the pair from the viewpoint of Christopher Robin’s window, as his nanny Nou — Kelly MacDonald, who possessed by far the best acting skills in the film — wave them goodbye each night as they swan off to various social events. This feeds into the period and what was commonplace amongst wealthy parents in London during the 1920s. To bring up one’s infant child without a nanny was simply unheard of and would be an automatic signifier of financial struggles.

Initially, it is from constant triggers to his PTSD that drives Milne from dazzling Chelsea to rural Cotchford Farm, to which Daphne shows little enthusiasm, to say the least. Once they are all settled — including Nou, how else could they possibly handle their lives — Milne experiences severe writer’s block.

Daphne shadily observes the Father and son bonding, which translates to wasted time in her eyes. “You’re a writer. Write!” she demands Milne, finally storming off back to London to look at the new wallpaper collection at Whiteley’s and announces she will only come back if he writes something. In other words, she throws a tantrum.

Nou leaves to tend to her sick mother, which puts Blue (A.A. Milne’s nickname) in the initially uncomfortable situation of being alone with Christopher Robin, or Billy Moon as he preferred to be called.

Idyllic days of walks in the infamous Hundred Acre Wood, games of cricket and the acting out of imaginary adventures go by, which of course include Billy’s marvellous collection of toys. Winnie the Bear (the Pooh came later as a sufficiently “inexplicable” name – one of the few interesting things we learn from the film), Tigger, Eyore and Piglet are all brought along by Billy. This is when the idea is born, and fellow WW1 veteran E.H. Shepard (The History Boys’ Stephen Campbell Moore) is called in to capture the moments that will illustrate the first poem – “Vespers”.

Sent off to Daphne, she gleefully comes back. When asked very calmly) about where she has been, she dismisses the question with an exasperated “What does it matter? I’m here now” and her departure is forgotten.

The internationally adored bear became a franchise at the expense of Billy Moon’s childhood. Roped into publicity stunts, interviews, and photo sessions, little Billy grows to be very confused as to why people think he is Christopher Robin. Introduced to the manager of a toy shop that sells hundreds of replicas of Winnie-the-Pooh, he asks what a manager does. “He makes all the decisions” which prompts him to ask his mother “Are you, my manager, then?” and ends up being one of the better-played scenes of the film.

His parents proceed to what is really yet another act of selfishness and send him off to boarding school. Due to his “fame” and effeminate haircut, he is constantly tormented by the other schoolboys, and by the time he reaches adolescence, craves anonymity so much he wants to enlist even though he failed the medical test. In a strange ending, where the father-son hatred magically dissipates, I was left with slight disbelief, and could not escape the feeling that the film did not

In a strange ending, where the father-son hatred magically dissipates, I was left with slight disbelief, and could not escape the feeling that the film did not fulfil the potential its premise certainly had.

Recipe: Pickling

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Food & Drink.

There was a brilliant Chef’s Table episode about a 60-year-old Zen Buddhist nun called Jeon Kwan. Jeon cooks for the other monks at her temple as well as the occasional visitors. It’s a brilliant episode for a number of reasons, but the way they talk about her cooking is something special.

They talk about time being one of the most important ingredients in her food. And I’d never thought about it before but it is so true. In fermentation, time is everything. It’s a variable that you can’t speed up, whether you’re ageing meat, brewing beer or, in Jeon Kwan’s case, making soy sauce.

Time is an inescapable facet of pickling. Cornichons and gherkins have been in my childhood fridge since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My grandfather has a shelf in his fridge dedicated to pickled goods… my blood is, quite literally, diffused with pickle juice.

Here is a pickled cucumber recipe.

Ingredients

150g Water

100g White Wine Vinegar, or blend with cider vinegar

50g sugar

1 pinch salt

1tbsp of chopped dill

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

 

Method

Heat all of the ingredients in a pan over a low heat, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. When the sugar has dissolved, transfer the pickling liquid into a container and allow to cool in the fridge. Once cool, place your cucumber in an old jam jar or similar airtight container, cover with the pickling liquid. Store in a cool, dry place.

 

You could eat the cucumber the next day and taste the pickling, or wait a month and the flavour will have changed. Let time do its business.

 

Students attacked and mugged at knife point

Written by Kizzy Bray on . Posted in News.

Two men, reportedly armed with a knife and a crowbar, are targeting intoxicated students coming home from nights out in smaller groups and threatening them.

In the early morning of the 5th October two unknown attackers began a spree of muggings across Fallowfield. One student — who wished to remain anonymous — was walking home from Antwerp Mansion at 3:30am with a friend when the pair were attacked.

He was hit over the head with a crowbar and then received a surface knife wound after refusing to give over his phone and wallet, whilst his friend had his phone stolen. The victim told The Mancunion “I noticed there was two men in front of me, both around 25, one white, sort of skinny with what I think was a gingery beard and one of darker skin colour with a mask and a bit bigger build. One had a knife, one had a crowbar.”

After the refusal to give up his belongings and subsequently being violently attacked, the men ran off. “They ran to their car and drove off really fast. They swerved as if to hit my mate, but that was definitely a scare tactic”.

At around 3:45am, just after our first witnesses’ account, another student called Nickon was attacked along with his friend.

“They were very aggressive and punched both of us” Nickon told The Mancunion. “I managed to push one of them over and run away, but my friend was pinned to a car by the one with a knife. He gave them his things and saw an opportunity and managed to escape.” Nickon’s description of the two attackers was almost identical to the first.

The anonymous witness contacted the police and was told to wait for patrol officers to take his statement. “It took them an hour or more for them to come. They apologised and said that we weren’t the first people that this had happened to tonight and that the other statements matched the same profiles.” He went on to say “I definitely don’t feel safe, especially as the guys who were doing it seemed a bit unstable and provocative. I think they were just trying to act big, but that would scare most people. This could really effect the community.”

Nickon felt the same way. “I’m more alert definitely, it does seem a bit more precarious to me now walking around, I think I’m always going to make sure I’m with a bigger group or start taking more taxis.”

With such a violent threat to the community of Fallowfield, we wondered how the police are choosing to deal with the danger. Previously, The Mancunion submitted a freedom of information asking how many officers patrol the Fallowfield area overnight, however the request was denied.

According to the first victim, the police told him that “they put more patrols in place last night after the rampage. They also said they went and actually checked the area we were attacked in because I told them the guy might have dropped the knife there.”

Whether the increase of patrol officers in Fallowfield becomes a permanent fixture or whether it was just for the night is still unknown. The perpetrators are still yet to be found, although detectives are following up potential leads from the stolen goods. If you have any information that may lead to their capture, please call 111.

Harlem Spartans: An Exclusive

Written by Raine Beckford on . Posted in Features.

The UK music scene is amid a modern renaissance. The successes have come thick and fast and they show no sign of letting up. From Stormzy’s Gang Signs and Prayers becoming the first grime album to go number one to J Hus’s Mercury Prize nomination for Common Sense, it’s clear that the new wave of black British music is here to stay.

Nowhere is this more evident than with the rise of South London drill pioneers, Harlem Spartans. Ahead of their first ever live show, I chatted with them about their journey and their thoughts on the scene.

Childhood friends – MizorMac, Bis, Blanco, TG Millian, Zico, & Active, grew up together in Kennington, South East London. Immortalised in their song “Kennington Bop”, the group describes Kennington as “very active and fun”, especially around summer. They reminisce on hosting barbecues and block parties to which “all the females come out and play”.

The Spartans are relatively new on the scene. Self-described hustlers, they had a hand in many different things before coming together. Music was always on their minds, however. Zico, MizorMac and Loski all started off as solo artists.

They describe themselves as being in the studio for fun but never really taking music seriously. Whereas, Bis and Blanco began as a duo but eventually gave this up to join the group.

As heavyweights in the scene, they take a minute to reflect on the current state of UK drill. They say, “it’s going well but everyone likes to copy each other and the same sound will soon get boring”. Despite this, their outlook is positive. They tell me “We’re hoping drill doesn’t die out because we like the fact that UK drill is getting more recognition. But we think it needs a good break so it can begin to sound authentic again”.

Their own position within the scene is solid. They tell me “what makes Harlem different from any other rap group is that we all have our own unique individualities. We don’t copy anybody else and we set trends when we feel like it”.

They accredit their personal style with producing their success. “The personalized lingo that we put in our music and our catchphrases like ‘are you going to back your bredrin’ are what keep people intrigued. People from different countries rate the content of our music even though they don’t understand what we’re saying. We also make music that’s relatable for a lot of youths across the UK”.

The group is already thinking ahead and aiming high. “In 5 years’ time, we’re hoping to go mainstream and try new sounds. We want to be collaborating with big artists, artists from around the world”. But for now, thinking of their first show they say “we’re excited for the Manchester show, and so is our DJ [DJ Sparta].

“We’re ready to see if people in Manchester will take to Harlem”. Cheekily, they add “we’re looking forward to seeing what the chocolate jawns are saying too. We’re excited because it’s outside of London. It’s a different environment”.

Their first live show is Wednesday, October 11th at Mint Lounge. Find tickets at http://fatso.ma/f2BW

The group can be found on Twitter: @SpartansHarlem @Mizormac @TG_Millian @ZicoBoogie @BisHarlem @BlancoHarlem

A Student Life: Jonah Ogbuneke

Written by Raine Beckford on . Posted in Features.

Homelessness in Manchester is not a new phenomenon. Increasing numbers of people are finding themselves on the streets and with fewer options available to people in this position, I sat down with the man who is making this issue his own.

Jonah Ogbuneke is passionate about his cause. A third-year chemical engineering student, he has made tackling homelessness is his primary concern. He tells me about Love For The Streets. A year long project with the goal of reducing homelessness, raising awareness and crowdsourcing funds for the various homeless charities across Manchester. He says “it’s a campaign that we’re running throughout the entire year. Our first event was the 30th of September and we’re finishing off on the 5th of May with a culture and music festival at Platt Fields park. Between now and then we’ve got a christmas party planned and during homelessness week (the 19th to the 25th of march) we’re holding a conference to raise awareness”.

His interest in the issue is relatively new and he speaks of the lack of promotion he feels surrounds the cause. He says “what we are is an events and marketing platform for various homeless charities across manchester. We want to engage with younger audiences to try and get their voices across. This is because I’d noticed homelessness in manchester before, it’s very difficult not to, but the only charity I knew of that was doing anything about it was Shelter”. He explains how fast the tide is turning though. “The more i got involved with it, the more i realised there are a huge number of charities working tirelessly to try and tackle the issue. From Andy Burnham, who has made it one of his main targets, to all the different charities such as Barnabus, Mustard Tree, The Booth Centre, many that i don’t even know about”.

While optimistic about the future of the campaign he notes the issues that he, along with many other platforms, are facing. “Unless these groups get the backing and support that they need from the general public it’s unlikely that they’ll really be able to achieve their full potential”. This issue, he says, is multifaceted. “Of course it is a financial issue. Charities, especially grassroots charities, run on a shoestring budget and they’re struggling to survive right now. It’s only really the larger charities that are increasing and thats because they have the budget for marketing teams and fundraising teams whereas with grassroots charities, all the money they have goes directly into the work. There’s very little room for anything else. But numbers are an issue too. In terms of manpower they’re stretched very thin”.

Upbeat and confident, he’s full of ideas on what can be done to tackle the problem. “As students, all our power is in volunteering. If everyone could volunteer even 2 hours a semester it would help a lot. Last year, University of Manchester students as a whole did 20,000 hours and that’s with 40,000 undergrads. That’s around 30 minutes per undergrad. Less than an episode of game of thrones. 2 hours a semester is 4 hours a year so thats 160,000 hours for everyone. It’s 8 times as much as we’re doing now and that alone would make such a difference”. He notes, however, what a big ask this can seem. He says “there’s only so much time someone can commit and it’s unpaid so I would never expect anyone to work as hard as I am on it”.

The project has gone from strength to strength and it’s clear he enjoys everything he can do with it. Describing it as a “full time” pursuit, Ogbuneke is clear on his outlook for the future. He says “I work on it constantly i’ve even been working on it this morning. Its hands down my priority and it’s a dry run for the social enterprise i want to do after university. I want to work in the third sector”. He is staunchly determined that the project remains student-led, even after his eventual departure.

He is most excited for the end of year festival he has planned. He tells me “by the end of this year we’ll have the festival itself and the money raised from tickets will go towards making it sustainable. At the moment, we’re relying a lot on crowdfunding and we want it to become a yearly thing”. His plans for the festival are grand. They include food stalls, multiple stages and an art exhibition called “Manchester Through My Eyes” to which he hopes budding creatives will submit art for display. Videos, photography, music and paintings are all welcome. He stresses the importance of student involvement and is particularly thankful to the volunteers the platform has already received.

The campaign aims to have a website launched by the end of the month. For now, readers looking to get involved with the project can email [email protected] for more information or search Love For The Streets on Facebook.

 

Review: Palmyra

Written by Neha Kasaravalli on . Posted in Theatre.

It begins and ends in deafening silence. The audience are lit with bright luminescence, giving no one a chance to look away. We are the spectators. No one can ignore what is happening. Ceramic dust flies through the air as boxes upon boxes of plates are smashed to the floor.

Nasi Voutsas and Bertrand Lesca bring their self-diagnosed intensely toxic relationship to the forefront of the stage in Palmyra, leaving everyone watching with a million questions. The play aims to explore the political climate of destruction and retaliation in Syria, and does this through the relationship between the performers. Lesca breaks a plate, so Voutsas has to too. It is an endless cycle of destruction.

The destruction seems immeasurable, uncivilised and brutal. Perhaps, as the title suggests, it is to be compared with the chaos that occurred in the ancient city of Palmyra itself. The Unesco world heritage site was smashed to the ground by Islamic State fighters after a 10-month occupation.

You could argue that there was no real reference to the sacking of the ancient city. Was it simply two psychologically unstable men exploding with aggression? Would we know what inspired the play if not for the title? Maybe not, but it is hard not to absorb the anger and the betrayal from the thunderous silences in between the moments of hysteria.

It’s the dynamic between the two leading men that really leaves a lasting impression, however; tender, but with moments of such intense hatred you wonder if it is just for show. Darkly manipulative, Lesca speaks with such conviction you cannot question what he is saying.

Voutsas is more hysterical, more manic, more neurotic. Tortuously aggressive, we can only watch in stunned silence at the mind games they play with each other.

There are moments where you would be forgiven for being unsure what exactly is happening. The sharp cuts from barbarity to serene dancing create visions of chaos; it is the extreme contrasts that inject comedy into the performance, as well as the skilfully written script.

The comedy acts as a mechanism to exaggerate the idea that perhaps the destruction is ridiculous. Is it not simply wasteful, unnecessary and selfish to destroy things of beauty? Perhaps that is a bit dramatic to say over a ceramic plate.

With powerful imagery and a potent dynamic, Palmyra forces the audience to confront the reality of a broken relationship. The broken plates with their permanent cracks display a symbolic truth that lingers in the air long after the play ends. If I had one word to describe it: strange. It was strange.

You are left with questions that are never truly answered. Why did they so truly hate each other? Applying this dynamic to Syria can be thought-provoking, however. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance but there were moments where I could sense everyone in the room was confused. I can’t have been the only one left pondering for a while after it ended.

Manchester University political scene highly-rated

Written by Cameron Broome on . Posted in News.

The University of Manchester is one of the UK’s top-rated universities for its political scene, the Which? University 2017 Student Survey has suggested.

The findings are most timely given the Conservative Party held its annual conference in Manchester again this year, met with thousands of protesters.

Sunday the 1st of October was the first day of the conference and coincided with two large demonstrations: an event organised by the People’s Assembly against public sector cuts, and a ‘Stop Brexit’ march organised by Brexit sceptics, both reportedly attended by over 30,000 protesters.

Students’ Union Campaigns and Citizenship Officer, Deej Malik-Johnson, commented on the various demonstrations and told The Mancunion: “As a response to the Conservative Party conference in the city this week a number of campaigning groups are holding events from the People’s Assembly Against Austerity and Stop Brexit to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Momentum and Stand Up To Racism, as Campaigns and Citizenship Officer and as a Mancunian I find this a really exciting opportunity for people of all ends of the political spectrum to get engaged in a range of debates about the direction the country is going and to make their voices heard, this can only be a good thing for our democracy and for the people of Manchester.”

Alluding to the findings, he added: “As you may have seen over the weekend, the Which? University Student Survey found the University Of Manchester to be one of the leading universities in the country for student engagement in politics so as you would expect our students had a great presence at both marches.

“Various students and societies approached me and SU staff to help facilitate their actions, we hosted banner and placard making sessions, made advice packs, and co-ordinated meeting points. On the day hundreds of UoM students as societies and individuals marched, sang, chanted and gave speeches and I’m very proud of our presence.”

Deej also said that “many [students] expressed disappointment that both demos were happening at the same time as they would have liked to attend both.”

In the survey, a second-year Modern History student praised Manchester’s “strong political history” and suggested there is “huge socialist scene in the city historically and this is visible today.”

While a second-year Physics student agreed that Manchester had a strong political scene, they suggested that the “University of Manchester is so large that there are political groups of every nature.”

In the Which? Student Survey 2017, the University of Manchester also ranked highly for its diverse nightlife, varied union activities and proximity to the city centre.

A first-year German Studies student described Manchester’s nightlife as “fantastic and not too expensive”, while a first-year clinical medical student said the University’s “variety of clubs and societies on offer is amazing.”

Some downsides suggested in the survey included “cleanliness and security of the town area”, “communication between different departments” which a second year Clinical Medicine student said “could be better… [which] would allow things to run a bit more smoothly” and a comment that the “quality of teaching varies hugely between individual tutors and lecturers.”

A chance to give homeless people administered healthcare

Written by Shivani Kaura on . Posted in News, Uncategorised.

Rough sleepers in Manchester will be given access to healthcare in general practices and accident and emergency centres, this week. Creator of the scheme, Dr Zahid Chauhan, aims for those without a home to have greater access to medical services.

Currently, homeless people are unable to join GP surgeries as they do not have a registered address. As a result, when faced with a medical issue, they are forced to attend accident and emergency. The lack of background information available at A&E — information usually tied to one’s address — makes it difficult for medical professionals to come up with a diagnosis.

Dr Chauhan, writing for GP Online, stated, “the programme calls on us all to make a cultural shift. It asks that we look at our policies and procedures to ensure that they are homeless-friendly. If practice staff need support and training, local GPs can provide that.”

With the ever-growing numbers of people attending A&E as opposed to booking appointments with their GPs, the stress on these services is reaching breaking point. The scheme is meant to reduce this pressure, not only by simply ensuring people are given treatment elsewhere, but more importantly by preventing problems before they become too serious to require emergency treatment.

Antibiotics for infections or wounds and surgeries for heart attacks — a condition which is growing exponentially within the homeless community — are amongst the most common medical issues that participating GPs will deal with.

Potentially, this scheme could allow those who sleep rough to enter into programs aimed at rehabilitation from alcohol or drug-related problems. antibiotics for infections or wounds and surgeries for heart attacks — a condition which is growing exponentially within the homeless community — and other medical issues.

This type of program has precedent and has an impressive track record of success. Urban Village Medical Practice, a participating surgery, has been operating a weekly drop-in and other programs specifically aimed at homeless people, for the last 15-years.

In addition, “All team members belong to the Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health, the first independent, multi-disciplinary body focused on the health care of homeless and other multiply excluded people.”

In 2012, the practice was approached to take part in a 6-month pilot scheme, aimed at uncovering the main reasons homeless people were using medical services. The study showed that proactive, preventative engagement with homeless people resulted in 81 of frequent users of medical services reducing their attendances.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, speaking to The Manchester Evening News, reiterated the benefits of people attending appointments in GPs surgeries, rather than simply turning up at A&E. He also stressed the benefits of preventative medicine

He also stressed the benefits of preventative medicine, saying: “It makes sense to give people that care when they need it rather than letting it become a much greater problem, that in the end might end up costing us all more.”

Homelessness has been on the rise recently, and Burnham made it clear he was well aware of the problem. He noted the emotional effect it had on him personally, “It is quite a sobering fact to realise that the average life expectancy for somebody rough sleeping or homeless is 47. I’m 47. So, that really hits home hard for me and it’s why I am so personally committed to this.”

Burnham has pledged to end homelessness in Manchester by the year 2020.

Survival kits are now being handed out to homeless people containing blankets, bottles of water and sleeping bags.

Participating clinics: Dam Head Medical Centre, Blackley, Royton Medical Centre, Oldham, Longsight Medical Centre, Lime Square Medical Centre, Fallowfield Medical Centre, Beacon Medical Centre, Medlock Medical Centre, Prestwich walk-in centre, The Dale Medical Practice, and Waters Meeting Health Centre.

Review: Eurohouse

Written by Anna Merabishvili on . Posted in Theatre.

When Eurohouse begins, there is a sense that this is going to be a piece about the audience.

French Bertrand Lesca and Greek Nasi Voutsas introduce themselves, encouraging the audience members to speak to the strangers next to us and to all hold hands with each other. This energy is felt straight away, and we feel like we are part of a community.

However, the performance is about a lot more than just us in the room. It is about coming together and being aware that a theatre is a place that unites people from all over the world, particularly within the European Union.

The portrayal of the relationship between Lesca and Voutsas is an intimate and touching representation of the EU, particularly of the rapport between France and Greece. The two men come on together, doing a dance with acrobatic elements several times throughout the piece, where they literally have to lean on each other for support. They hold hands while they sing a French song, and wear the same trainers.

However, soon we realise that Lesca is in charge, almost abusing Voutsas – he gives him sweets, but after Voutsas has eaten them, Lesca demands them back.

When he is unable to return them, Lesca takes away his water and drinks the whole bottle.

The politics of the weakened economy in Greece, the facts of which are later projected onto the screen, are also powerfully and interestingly depicted when Lesca takes Voutsas’ t-shirt and jeans, putting them on top of his own clothes and leaving Voutsas stripped down to his boxers.

When he demands that he takes off the boxers as well, Voutsas leaves the room, and the audience witness Lesca’s failed attempt of doing the acrobatic dance without him, obviously implying the importance of the role of Greece within the EU and the dependence of the EU countries on each other, as well as the idea of trust between them.

Overall, the raw, real feeling of the piece completely strips back theatrical illusion – leaving only the two men on stage. Lesca operates the lights as well as the music, being in charge of pretty much the whole production.

The result is that we are made to feel sympathy for both men, as the complicated relationship between the countries is effectively reduced and contained within the dynamic of the two of them on stage. What makes this even more striking is the feeling that we have established a relationship with them – through direct interaction and eye contact, showing us that the issue is relevant to every single one of us.

Indy Man Beer Con 2017

Written by Alec Wilby on . Posted in Food & Drink.

Indy Man Beer Con (IMBC) takes over Victoria Baths in Rusholme for 4 days, filling each pool and several side rooms with different breweries and other exhibitors. Braving the September rain provided access to the food area, where a range of street food vendors toiled away to keep attendees relatively sober.

Tickets for the Saturday evening session were £13.50 but you need to book quite early (around the end of May) to get into the more popular sessions. In addition to beer, cider and artisanal soft drinks have been available for the last couple of years. New this year, however, was gin, courtesy of award-winning Manchester brand, Three Rivers.

At IMBC, one token is £2.50, or you can get 11 for £25, new this year were food tokens for £1. One drinks token gets you 1/3 of a pint — or one G&T — working out at £7.50 a pint. IMBC was cheaper in the past, but after some upset last year, it seems that attendees have accepted the price hike as permanent. I bought £25 worth of beer tokens and £10 of food tokens and later traded in excess drinks tokens to buy more food.

Blawd Bakehouse Peanut Butter Custard doughnut. Photo: Alec Wilby

One of the big hits last year was the doughnuts from Blawd Bakehouse, with one of my friends insisting that they were worth the entry cost. After finding a table, I went straight to their stall and bought a peanut butter custard doughnut — pictured above — for £3. They also had a couple of jam and a couple of custard types on offer, as well as cherry pie.

It pains me to say that after a year of anticipation, I was a little disappointed. The dough itself was excellent, much softer than I expected but not to the point where it collapsed after a bite. The filling was the wrong choice. I should have gone for jam.

Blawd Bakehouse has apparently been operating out of Common although, since the last IMBC, I’ve not managed to get one of their doughnuts. They should, however, be opening soon in SiOP SHOP in the Northern Quarter, I would recommend giving them a try.

I’m not really a beer person so I tend to just pick drinks at random and suffer the result — although I would say this year I was fairly successful. I started with CAKE, an IPA from Garage Beer Co. It looked a bit… wrong? — it’s the cloudy one in the main picture — but it was a decent IPA with a peachy aftertaste.

Following that was Siren’s Yu Lu loose-leaf pale, which I’d recommend to anyone who’s a fan of tea. A friend who is very into her dark beer recommends Siren’s Rum Barrel Broken Dream, a twist on their staple breakfast stout, Broken Dream.

She assures me that the — quite complex — method of ageing coffee beans in rum barrels before incorporating them into the beer brewing process had delicious results. I can’t stand stout so you’ll have to take her word for it.

Diamond Dogs ‘The Boss’ Hot Dog. Photo: Alec Wilby

This is the fourth year I’ve been to IMBC and I’ve always eaten one of Almost Famous’ offerings, however this year they were nowhere to be found, having been replaced with Patty Smith’s. Their queue was quite long — which presumably says good things about their burgers — and I was starving so I decided to go off the beaten track. Diamond Dogs had been at a previous IMBC, but hotdogs have always been something I’ve ignored.

I went for ‘The Boss’ dog, featuring pulled pork and BBQ sauce and didn’t regret a thing: the sausage was decent and was complemented well by the topping. It also had the benefit of being very clean to eat, versus my usual festival experience with Almost Famous.

After the hotdog, I made the decision to switch to gin. Three Rivers were testing the waters for gin at IMBC and were offering a G&T garnished with a black cherry for 1 token, or a gin/ginger/grapefruit/IPA cocktail for 2 tokens.

The G&T was a welcome change to beer and my gin-drinking friend and I went back for several more, however, I wasn’t a fan of the cocktail. Actually, I’ve yet to have a beer-based cocktail that I would say worked. Their offerings were arguably better value for money than beer. Hopefully, the positive reaction of attendees will lead to a larger gin selection in subsequent years for people who like the atmosphere, but not beer.

As the evening came to a close, there was one more drink I had to try and it was soft serve beer. Buxton Brewery had slushie machines with them and were using them to make the head for some of their beers.

The result was a very chilled, refreshing drink — Myrcia Oatmeal Hopburst IPA — that helped with some excruciatingly hot salt and pepper fries from Dim Sum Su, which, while delicious, lacked the peppers I would have expected.

Once again, IMBC was a great evening with as wide a selection of food and beer as you could hope to find in any single place in Manchester. The addition of gin was a welcome one, and one I hope is further expanded in subsequent years.

The return of Karkli with their lentil based snacks — available in pubs around Manchester — and Blawd Bakery were welcome — even if I made a poor flavour choice. I’ll be going again next year and would recommend it to beer and food lovers alike.

 

Review: Flatliners

Written by Lucas Hill-Paul on . Posted in Film.

Sony Pictures seem to genuinely believe that teenagers are the only demographic worth appealing to. Indeed, the only demographic going to the movies in their eyes, though this of course is completely ignorant. Flatliners is the latest in the line of limp, edgy, adolescent remakes from Sony that fail to understand that blockbusters can be something other than crude or sexy.

After devolving the commentary and smarts of science-fiction films like Total Recall and Robocop, turning Spider-Man into a young adult romance and Ghostbusters into a Judd Apatow lad(ette) comedy, we now bear witness to the inexplicable decision to transform the 1990s film Flatliners into a party movie. Having more in common with Project X or Bad Neighbours than The Sixth Sense, the Flatliners remake parallels the existential high of stopping one’s heart to the rush of a party drug. Kiersey Clemons muses, “if only we could bottle Flatlining” to sell to disillusioned millennials in need of a near-death experience, and I wonder if this film’s intention was as a cautionary tale to ward off drug use, or to inspire the circulation of an ecstasy pill called “Flatline”.

The original is by no means a great film. Boasting an impressive cast, biblical imagery and generational strife, eventually Oliver Platt’s poetic waxing grows tiresome and the haunted proceedings all get a bit silly. Its visions of the afterlife, however, are all magnetic to watch. The first begins with a slow zoom into the image of Keifer Sutherland — who appears in the remake looking sheepish and poorly bewigged — captured by a grainy video camera operated by one of the characters. The closed, black eye gives way to a hazy dream that could be heaven or could be a memory. Flatliners (2017) swaps this ambiguity for a hasty zoom out through CGI rendered floors and ceilings to a first-person glide through an unconvincing cityscape, before dropping the form of Ellen Page into an environment of light and electricity straight from an advertisement for a 2010 smartphone.

In an attempt to emulate the neglect and competition faced by the Generation X characters in Joel Schumacher’s film, screenwriter Ben Ripley imbues the new characters with millennial pressures to strive and succeed. The attempt at generational parallels is contradicted, however, by casting an unlikable group of rich kids and trust fundees, for whom it is difficult to feel sorry for when compared to Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon’s long, dirty haircuts and raggedy coats that successfully highlight the grungy desperation of 90s entrepreneurship.

The fact that our male lead lives on a luxury yacht is especially irritating when the film elects to ignore the claustrophobic advantages this unconventional home would yield, instead delivering the same predictable scares as any number of haunted house films before it. A potential moment of real Silent Hill gruesomeness is ignored in favour of several ‘ghost over the shoulder’ moments, strange noises from the radio and an ineffective moment of shock gore. Under a director with a sense of space and location, a houseboat would seem a perfect opportunity to lend the film some character and intrigue, but Flatliners is more concerned with delivering a safe, digestible thriller.

A scene in which Kevin Bacon makes amends with the real woman behind his haunting is presented in the original as a touching moment of recompense, though the remake’s entitled ensemble take advantage of this redemption method as an easy fix. Solidifying the characters as wholly unlikeable, when asking for forgiveness, it is completely transparent that they are apologising for their own gain, not due to any sense of responsibility or guilt. Most importantly, once this method is discovered, any chance that the movie may eventually get scary is ruined, the characters breezing through their emotional turmoil with all the mirth of a young child apologising to their friend for stealing sweets. A totally inappropriate tone for a film attempting to explore weighty topics as abortion, cyber-bullying and false autopsy reports, the easy resolution of the final act is in direct odds with a script attempting to tackle the unfair disdain for the millennial generation.

Ellen Page tries her best to give the film a sincere performance, but the poorly-rendered action and horror set pieces, its contradiction of themes and the fact that any spiritual existentialism is replaced by infantile partying and romance surely solidifies this lazy exploitation of 90s nostalgia — Sony didn’t get the memo that we’re still in 80s mode — as one of the year’s biggest flops. Much like Kiefer Sutherland’s dreadful wig, Flatliners is too long, unconvincing and very embarrassing.

1/5

In Conversation: Kevin Jerome Everson

Written by James Gill on . Posted in Arts.

Kevin Jerome Everson, fresh from a mid-career retrospective at London’s TATE Modern, travelled up to HOME to screen a selection of his short films with producer Madeleine Molyneaux. Viewers were treated to multiple UK premieres as well as a Q&A, hosted by HOME’s Artistic Director Sarah Perks.

Born in Ohio and based at the University of Virginia, Everson is an award-winning artist and filmmaker and is regarded as one of the most important and creative filmmakers currently working in the USA. Despite this though he remains humble, “I’m just from a small town, I just make things and I’m fascinated by people who want to see what I do.”

Art as an opportunity only caught his attention at college. There he studied photography, printmaking and sculptures, before that he was “just a big dumb jock”.

Since then his films have screened at festivals such as Sundance and Toronto International Film Festival and are praised for their unique style, combining scripted and documentary elements with an obvious formalistic approach. The focus is almost entirely on the African-American experience within the working class whilst abstaining from any generic socio-political commentaries.

The 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship winner exhibits a strong sense of labour in his work, “I’m very privileged to be an artist, so I try to find artistry in the everyday lives of workers.” One film, in particular, Company Line (2009), centres around a group of city employees battling the snowy conditions to grit the streets.

“I make films for the subject matter not the viewer, so I’m conscious about how they look and what they say. I find the people who are the best at what they do, and capture them doing it.” A large section of Company Line is riding along with a particular snowplough driver, watching him at work. There are deeper remarks about 20th century African-American migration to the northern US present here too, depicting a class seldom mentioned let alone seen on film.

The town shown, Mansfield, Ohio, is Everson’s home town and the film was used as part of a trilogy about the first three black neighbourhoods in America. In the early 1970’s the land they lived on was purchased and all the residents in that neighbourhood were scattered all around.

There are more unusual films in his catalogue too. For example Rough and Unequal is a 16mm project where he used a telescope to capture the moon and stars.

Commissioned specifically for an exhibition at the Franklin Museum of Art, it was designed to have an effect on the art space as a whole, changing the audiences perceptions of all the pieces on display throughout its runtime.

More recently his 2017 work Brown and Clear that was shown at TIFF divided audiences. It takes place in a bar and shows a man filling up empty bottles with alcohol for the whole seven minutes and 40 second runtime. Naturally this would immediately turn off a subset of viewers but the variety of techniques utilised make this an intriguing watch.

The story behind the film is similarly intriguing. Everson was visiting a relative and came to the pub he ran. Instantly he was looking at his surroundings for potential subjects. He noted that “it was all of questionable legality”. After going back home he decided to drive the eight hours back to film the relative at work.

Medium to close shots are intentional to mask the location and identity to avoid any police trouble. There are numerous interpretations to the underlying meaning of Brown and Clear, one member of the audience suggested that it “was a comment on alcoholism”. Everson himself agreed with this adding: “Where I’m from you didn’t get all the fancy alcohol choices you guys have, it was either brown, like bourbon or brandy, or white, like vodka or moonshine.”

Working with a colleague at the University of Virginia, he also makes period films about the history of African-Americans. “When we show them in front of the school where there are people of European descent they get upset but they’re not in it. Whether it’s positive or negative they want to be at the centre of it.”

Although his art is focussed on the African-American experience, it is unavoidable that it would be primarily shown to white audiences, whether that be at a film festival or a gallery.

The main objective though is to spark discussion about the social, political and economic condition present. “I never know what people will think when they watch my films but I just try to be consistent. If not then fuck it, i’ll just film more tomorrow.”

World Mental Health Day 2017 comes to Manchester campus

Written by Lauren Goodfellow on . Posted in Lifestyle, News.

Mental health is widely regarded as being one of the most pressing issues of modern day society, yet arguably there remains a shroud of stigma around anyone seeking help.

According to a 2016 YouGov survey, over one-quarter of students report having a mental health condition, suggestive of the enormity of the problem at hand.

Since 2013, on the 10th of October every year, the World Health Organisation has promoted World Mental Health Day internationally. The day aims to normalise mental health issues, start conversations and highlight the importance of acceptance amongst the global community.

After the success of last year’s events, current Wellbeing Officer Saqib Mahmood has organised a day of activities in celebration of World Mental Health Day 2017 (Tuesday the 1oth of October).

Speaking to The Mancunion, he said: “We plan to make this day more engaging, exciting and enjoyable than ever. This year looks promising on tackling the negative stigma surrounding mental health and gaining access to the services when one is in need of help.”

The day will begin with a free tea and coffee morning in the SU Council Chambers, allowing students to start the day relaxed and refreshed. From 11 am until 4 pm, there will be a Mental Health Fair held next to University Place.

The fair will include student societies, the NUS Vice President of Welfare and staff members from the University’s well-being services.

One of the student groups getting involved in the day is Open Mind Manchester, a student-led mental health society and the President of the society, Nomaan Zubair was quick to praise World Mental Health Day.

Speaking to The Mancunion, he said: “I think WMHD is important as it brings something that isn’t widely discussed [in] the mainstream. Days like WMHD help us to realise that it’s okay not to be okay sometimes and that the fight against mental health is everyone’s fight.”

The day will be rounded off with a ‘Liberate My Mind Panel’ which aims to bring to light the mental health issues of minority groups. This includes LGBTQ+, BME, and faith groups, all who face marginalisation and increased stigmatisation when it comes to mental health.

If you wish to get involved and help out on World Mental Health Day, contact Saqib on [email protected] or Open Mind on [email protected].