Film, music, and well-being: Compass celebrates the second Blue COMPASS Day with a film forum on pressure, vulnerability, and hope
Blue Monday became an opportunity to reflect on self-imposed demands, identity, and emotional well-being through cinema.
PhotoManuelCastells/The speakers at the colloquium, during the II Blue COMPASS Day
20 | 01 | 2026
To mark Blue Monday, the Guidance and Wellbeing Unit – Compass held the second Blue COMPASS Day on Monday, January 19, 2026, an initiative that seeks to transform a date associated with discouragement into a university space for meeting, reflection, and staff growth.
The event took place in the auditorium Hexagon Building and centered around a film forum featuring the movie KPop Demon Hunters (Kang and Appelhans, 2025), a proposal , under a pop aesthetic and vibrant musical display, raises highly topical questions: the society of spectacle, the pressure to maintain an impeccable image, invisible wounds, and how vulnerability and friendship can become a force for reconstruction.
After the screening, a colloquium was held colloquium the participation of Raquel Cascales (School of Architecture), Lourdes Esqueda (School Communication), Ignacio Laguía (School Communication), and Arturo Lecumberri (psychologist at Compass). Based on specific scenes, the speakers discussed how the university stage—with academic, social, and personal decisions that set the course—can intensify self-imposed demands, fear of failure, or the need for approval.
During the discussion, it was emphasized that, in a culture that demands perfection, showing vulnerability seems risky. However, the film forum allowed us to put words to a core topic: wounds do not disappear by denying them; they are better dealt with when they can be recognized and when there are supportive bonds. In this sense, the film offered a common language to talk—without moralizing—about how social pressure and expectations (including on social media) can become an "inner voice" that isolates us, and how nurturing relationships, friendship, and companionship help us regain balance.
The colloquium also colloquium a fundamental ethical dimension: evil does not always appear in an obvious or violent way; sometimes it is attractive, seductive, and creeps into small everyday decisions. In response to this, the value of staff freedom, the possibility of starting over, and the role of love and sacrifice—in concrete gestures—were highlighted as real paths to staff community reconstruction.
The initiative is part of Compass' commitment to training and student well-being. Through guidance, support, and training activities, the Unit offers resources to help students face the challenges of university life with greater clarity and strength.
