#interview #kayak #exploration #Valdivian #Chile

Straight form Argentina, Tic-Toc was a film project that the public at Transylvania Mountain festival enjoyed a lot! It is a thrilling kayakers story about a group of explorers who try to reach the Trébol Lake, crossing through the Valdivian rainforest in the Aysen region, in Chile. The adventure short is directed by a team of two: Bianca Fidani and Nils Bailey.

The amazing bbe team with Bianca and Nils on the right. 

Bianca Fidani was born in Bariloche, Argentina. She studied and Audiovisual Artistic Design in the Rio Negro National University. She made distinctive shorts like “Anhelo” (2016); “Fragmento” (2016), “Ensayo de un Invierno” (2018). Currently she is finishing her degree thesis and working in the series ESPN Adventure.

Bianca Fidani / portrait.

Nils Bailey was born in Bariloche, Argentina. He studied in the Cievyc in Buenos Aires before starting to film the series ESPN Adventure and as main camera for almost all the episodes produced from 2013 to the day.

Nils Bailey / in a field project

Behind The Scenes: Tic-Toc – Crossing The Valdivian Forest

We reached out to them and tried to understand what happened actually in the expedition and how they managed to make the movie.

The project started actually in 2016 with a failed attempt to cross the Valdivian jungle with regular kayaks, to get to the Trebol Lake, in a very remote area. Then, in 2019 they tried a new attempt with a different approach, this time with packrafts. This project was born by looking at the maps when traveling in the Chilean fjords, and realizing that this lake had been explored by very few people, much less in the way they did. So they thought it would be an incredible adventure to try and connect it all and complete a circuit by rowing with the packrafts down the Tic Toc river and getting to the open sea.

In the jungle / a scene from the Tic-Toc film

As declared by the team: “The most challenging part of filming this was without a doubt the jungle! Very dense, wet, and hard to get through, and with heavy backpacks, delicate equipment and no certainty of knowing that we would be successful made this one of the most difficult filming we ever did.”

The packrafts used in the Tic-Toc project.

But how did they select their awesome cast for the Tic-Toc project?

“Our cast was determined by the skillset they had, being key the orientation & navigation skills, motivation to do such an adventure (not for everyone!), survival. And obviously Damian and Pablo, the ones that had the original idea had to come along.” – declares Bianca Fidani.

 

While reaching out to Bianca and Nils we discovered two outdoorsy persons who both practice sports in Nature.

Bianca grew up enjoying of the Jakob mountain hut in Bariloche, Argentina so her passion for the mountains started at a very early age. She currently practices trekking, ski, climbing, slackline.

Bianca Fidani / With the camera .

Nils on the other hand stated to grow his love for the mountains in his early twenties, when he stated working as an outdoor cameraman and got many opportunities to spend time among them. Since then he has practiced many sports, currently into trekking, sport and alpine climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and both are starting to learn some diving.

Nils Baily / Mountaineering.

“Having the Andes and living right on their foot ( In SC Bariloche, north Patagonia) we have always have had the mountains very present. There is a strong mountain culture as we have Aconcagua and many more summits, however it is still a sport practiced by few and there is a lot to improve on.” – reveals Nils Bailey on the occasion of our interview with the team.

Nils Baily / In the jungle.

How was 2020 for your team?

2020 was no doubts a very particular year, we weren’t able to film, but we did a lot of introspection and project development, and were privileged to live in a place that allows to get out and enjoy the outdoors without disturbing others.

We were surprised and supper happy to have been chosen by Transylvania Mountain Festival, but, we won’t lie: thinking of Transylvania we could only think of vampires! (We quickly got out of our ignorance though). We would have loved to be able to be there, know the place, and view the other film selections in a proper cinema. And we hope we get the chance in the near future.

Coming up next from Bianca Fidani and Nils Bailey team:

This year they hope to promote in festivals their other short film “Matanuska”, filmed in Alaska, as this past year was very hard to distribute it. What’s more: They are also developing a project involving the seven summits and an adventure series filmed in Central America!

Stay tuned for more news are coming soon in 2021 from this team! You can follow them here:

Web page: www.bbeproductions.com
Instagram:

“Behind The Scenes: Tic-Toc – Crossing The Valdivian Forest” – an interview prepared by Diana Ciorba in December 2020.