Stone Snaps "Women Occupy Exeter" on Sunday

"Stone" Naylor talks to econnexus.org.uk

To cut a rather long story short my partner Kasia is a member of the Exeter based International Women's Arts Group. The group recently created a Facebook page entitled "Women Occupy Exeter", and expressed their desire to "support the 99%" by:

Creati[ing a] space for women to discuss visions for positive social change Sunday 27th November. Our plan is to make an afternoon occupation and bring some colour, fun and love to the camp. Please come and perform, make art, drink tea, look beautiful and bring a small gift from nature to help us enshrine a space.

They also said:

FILM MAKER NEEDED!

This Sunday from 12.00 filming on Cathedral Green, Art Action, Women Occupy Exeter event.

Perfect opportunity for student film maker or for someone who wants more experience.

Whilst it's a very long time since Kasia and I were "students" in the conventional sense of that word, we definitely want more experience at making films. By 11 AM on Sunday morning nobody else seemed to have volunteered, so we packed our handycams into our trusty rucksacks and headed off to the appointed place at (slightly belatedly!) the appointed hour.  We also took with us some flowers, some fruit, some Xmas cards, and perhaps most importantly of all in the circumstances, some hot tea!

By the time we left it was starting to get dark, and we'd snapped some stills, and recorded a couple of DV tapes worth of video. We'd also listened to lots of people from the Women Occupy Exeter group, the Occupy Exeter movement itself, as well one or two passers by, some of whom were more vociferous than others! I had also been invited to participate in the Occupy Exeter General Assembly, but my somewhat ageing little grey cells couldn't get to grips with the necessary protocols in the brief time available. Nonetheless my presence at the assembly was duly minuted.

All in all we now have a lot of material to sift through, but nonetheless our first rather hastily produced video is now available for all to see. Photographer "Stone" Naylor has won awards for his pictures of events at the Glastonbury Festival over the last 21 years. He was on Exeter Cathedral Green along with all the rest of us on Sunday afternoon, and he took some pictures of Women Occupy Exeter too. However we learned that Stone had another reason for being there at that place at that time. To watch and listen to his reasons for deciding to "Occupy Exeter" this week, please click here.