Bilbao Seriesland Film Festival put on an exuberant show despite the Covid -19
Actualizado: 29 ene 2021
From 19th – 23rd of October the Bilbo Series Land Digital Film Festival amazed, yet again, its local audience with national as well as international web series. The exhibition mainly took place at Bilbao Rock, but also in Bizkaia Aretoa. We visited the festival the 22nd to get a look for ourselves
Entering the well-known hall of Bilbao Rock, we stood face to face with the massive screen. The concert hall had been transformed into an ad-hoc web-cinema. The scene was humble with only a handful of radiant boxes for sitting. It was clear that the moving images were the main characters of this show.
All over the world people had been acting in, filming and producing movies despite of the pandemic, and the intro of the show was a display of just this. “Dominos” from France, “Bondi slayer” from Australia and a cartoon, “Alejo y Valentina” from Spain. The rest of the evening consisted of interviews and a display of a host of series.
“Cancelled”
María Albiñana and Luke Eve have created an entire series with two impressive constraints. One, it was made during a hard lockdown. Two, it was filmed entirely with a mobile phone. “Canceled: O cómo crear en confinamiento” is the title of the act. Keep creating despite the new normality was the moral.
“A Diary From The Frontline”
“Cancelled” wasn’t the only web series showing people being productive despite being knee-deep in Corona. “A Dairy From The Frontline” is a series of American heath care workers from the US documenting their everyday-thoughts, -tasks and -troubles. This specific episode depicts the Philadelphia mom Sheena Williams. Brings a camera everywhere, sharing experiences from the clinic, worries about racism and makes for an honest and inspiring story in a not so inspiring new normality.
72 kilos
One guest in the lineup doesn’t make movies. Instead he inspires young as well as old minds with his playful illustrations, which he recently compiled into his third book, “Las cosas que importan”. He goes by the name 72 kilos which is his now current weight after losing 20 kg. His real name is Óscar Alonso and he has amassed a massive following on Social Media, which was also the topic he and the interviewer Rose of Dolls discussed. 1.7 million followers on Instagram is the current number. A number he attributed many benefits for both his creativity and professional life.
“Alice in Paris” + “Adultes”
We had heard some chatting from the front seats. A group of French tweens, who didn’t seem to understand much of what was going on during the Spanish interviews, rushed to the stage. Marie Augeai and Romane Foer representing their social media web series “Adultes” consisting of 30 second episodes about living as a undecided young adult in France. Series Land Bilbao was their first festival together and Thomas Veryer then became the first festival host to pick their brains. It was done in English accompanied with a few French phrases.
Next to them sat Alysse Hallali smiling so brightly, you could see it through her Basque mask. She brought her first editor to the festival to talk about her what they call “Alice in Paris”. They talked about how it was filmed with just a commercial canon 5D and later picked up by Tastemade. It has now been running for four years and Alysse or “Alice” are planning to entertain, inspire and educate even more people about cooking and cuisine.
Pascu and Rodri
Throughout the evening, more and more people joined the audience. Bilbao Rock and the organizers from series Land treated the Covid situation safely and elegantly. This was especially necessary for the last guests, the two Youtube superstars Pascu and Rodri. Up until then, the format had been interview - question, answer, question, answer, smile – Pascu and Rodri took over the stage and went way over time. The hall was suddenly full of kids, that didn’t hesitate to interrupt and ask their animation heroes.
The organizers announced that we only had time to do one last question. A girl stood up and raised her scrapbook up, like a Moses figure with her ten commandments. “can you sign this!” she shouted. The youtubers looked at the organizers awaiting an answer, but broke the silence saying that they weren’t allowed due to the corona, but that maybe someone would be standing right outside the exit.
