MP Faisal Rashid has given his full backing to a music video featuring Kyle Hignett, a local Rap Artist who recently attracted national headlines with his battle against mental illness.
The video is set in the former Warrington market basement and includes performances from a selection of traders and people connected with the market, each acting out a story encouraging people to talk about their own mental health.
Viewers are challenged to find the “Missing Mermaid” and also help “Santa” escape from the basement in this fun retro horror video. Santa got trapped there last Christmas Eve and has been dancing for his life ever since.
Faisal volunteered to go down to the basement and use all his dancing skills to rescue Santa and help find the missing mermaid. He has also promised not to avoid the elephant in the room when it appears.
“Raising issues around mental health requires discretion and it can be hard to confront these barriers. Most people do not mention the elephant in the room – even when it walks right past them – similar to avoiding issues around mental health.” said Faisal.
Dancing in the Shadows is a 360 degree virtual reality pop video. It can be viewed on a mobile phone, laptop or computer, but for the best immersive experience viewers are advised to watch it using a virtual reality headset.
One way to ensure you are first to see Faisal dancing in this video is to take part in the thunderclap promotion by clicking on this link http://thndr.me/2IP2qL Then selecting “support with facebook and/or twitter” it is as simple as that. Then on October 27 a huge message of support will be sent to those struggling with mental health.
Faisal said: “I am very sympathetic to the issue of mental health awareness and think this is a great way to get people talking about the subject. Once again Warrington is at the forefront of creative innovation.”
“I have been inspired by the efforts of Kyle Hignett to overcome his illness and his initiatives to help others avoid what he has been through, and I hope to invite Kyle and the makers of this video to attend a Parliamentary reception at the House of Commons in November to speak about the project.”
The video has attracted support from many organisations including the iconic recording studio Abbey Road made famous by the Beatles. At the time of going to press the video release on 27 October is scheduled to be seen by over 2.4 million viewers on social media.
The man behind the video project Stephen Pickering commented, “If Walt Disney had directed The Exorcist, I think it would have looked something like this. It is a humorous retro-horror flick aimed at engaging with young people. The reality is that mental health is a very scary experience and if we can help to encourage anyone who might be suffering to step into the light and start talking to someone, then that would be fantastic”.
