"Bez bagazh TV" - a new era in travel is coming

 

Introduce yourself in a few words..

"You are a restless soul, Bilyana," that’s how Prof. Snezina Tankovska used to talk to me, while I was her student at NATFIZ, and perhaps no one has described me more accurately. Never creatively calm, in a constant state of creativity – even while I’m driving… of course, the most inappropriate moment for that, but it’s part of me. I wholeheartedly embrace people, but if the detector senses hypocrisy, lying, duplicity, I erase it with the "big eraser". An incorrigible altruist, an optimist to the point of fantasy, I am a loving person and I believe that this is the key to a happy life.

What does traveling the world mean to you?

The greatest privilege of our time is that we have the opportunity to travel the world. What must it have been like for the ancients with their fragile wooden canoes in the vast ocean… Traveling is a chance to broaden your horizons, to make sense of your existence, to learn endlessly, to find your cause, to be a meaningful and useful person.

How many different countries have you seen so far? Share an interesting story or highlights from your travels?

This question is often asked, as if the number matters. Countries where I have had a layover at the airport, or a day or two stay on transits do not count in my numbers. I don’t count such trips because they can mislead, both you and those around you. For me, "travel" is a sacred word. It means to dedicate yourself to the place, the culture, to look deeply into the eyes of people, to breathe in rhythm with them… The difference is like between one-night sex and devoted, fulfilling love. To tag yourself from one, two, three places, to selfie like a madman – that is not traveling in the sense I put into the concept. I haven’t counted the countries where I have physically been. We have filmed in over 70 countries. In some we have been 8-9 times. Why? Because every time I realize that I haven’t seen yet something that excites me, something that needs to be explored and told. I have an endless collection of interesting stories and encounters that make me love this world to madness. On a repeat filming assignment in Java, Indonesia, early in the morning at the hotel for breakfast came only to have coffee with us, to bring us presents for the children and my favorite ginger candies, the guide Darwin, with whom we worked years ago on the island. He had traveled all night to hug us and be together for just a few minutes. Such warm friendships we create along the way and I know that we have family everywhere. That’s the meaning!

Do you like to repeat destinations? Give examples and motivation "for" or "against"?

We repeat, we triple, I was in Sri Lanka for the first time back in 1992 and since then I have traveled around the island eight times. If it’s not important for you just "the tag", then every destination deserves more visits. Just India alone is as much as an entire continent. Does traveling around the "Golden Triangle" for three or four days give you an idea of this vast culturally rich country? From desert to jungle – a journey is only like the first sip of desired, divine aromatic coffee, without the right to finish the cup.

What was your first trip that truly changed you as a professional and can be said to have changed your thinking?

My first trip to Kenya in 2007 was a groundbreaking documentary project for me. Black Africa was not popular in Bulgaria. I boldly announced, somewhat improvised (as if my subconscious was playing some game of challenges) a prize for a viewer to travel to Kenya, which we gave away with "Bez bagazh" every Friday in the morning block with Georgi Koritarov and Lora Krumova. There was no turning back from the promised and so we left for filming and meetings with the Maasai and Samburu tribes. Our driver was from the Kikuyu tribe. We toured several national reserves. This trip brought to the forefront my childhood dream to travel and get to know tribes and wild animals in different parts of the world. Three months after our return, I couldn’t process the emotions that were raging in me. In the end, the essence emerged – this is what I want to do – to tell their stories!

What do you learn about yourself and your professional skills when you are in a new cultural environment?

In a new cultural environment, you must enter with a smile and an attitude of openness, readiness for honesty, sharing, and tolerance. If you step in with prejudice – it is always felt and breaks the connection. It is in my nature to approach every person with a pure soul and love. People everywhere have intuition, a sixth sense, they sense you, "read" you…

Have you met people or ideas during your travels that have influenced your career Vand path?

The ideas in my way of creativity have been born in highly emotional moments – both in my environment and far from home. The interesting thing about me is that my career path chose me, not the other way around. I always knew I would be an actress until I faced documentary filmmaking head-on and realized that I have too many of my own words that do not allow me to remain closed in someone else's text. The journey that made me make the big career turn was precisely the first one in Kenya.

Do you think that traveling helps you expand your professional network? How?

Of course, we expand our professional network during business trips. But filming trips expand my family and friends circle. I have someone to trust everywhere I have worked.

What skills do you develop the most when you travel, and how do they reflect on your work Vand?

In my work as a creator of live stories, those that are born unexpectedly in front of you, you must be able to capture them in the process of their occurrence, you must have a quick assessment of the situation, circumstances, people, and relationships – priceless reflexes that I acquired over the years of working in an unfamiliar environment while traveling!

Is there a city or country that has Vinspired you to start a new business or project?

Let this be an entire continent for me. Africa is my inspiration! The vibrancy and vastness of cultural diversity make me create tirelessly. If I have to choose where my next documentary project should be – it will always be Africa.

How do you manage the balance between work and pleasure when you travel?

My husband and I combined our knowledge and talents, thank God, they match and our interests – he is a lawyer, I am an actress – according to the definition of the traditional educational system. Today we are both producers and creators – we film, write, create a priceless documentary collection of the cultural and natural wealth of the world. The children travel with us from an early age, they have seen extreme poverty, they have also seen the vanity of our civilization. I believe that our way of traveling is the best university for them, for us.

How have traveling changed the way you perceive the value of money?

Money makes people bad, greedy, envious. Clinging to the thought of money locks people in a cage where there is no creativity, no freedom, no sense of community and sharing. I saw this in the most shocking way high in the Andes in Peru. Traveling up to the thin air, we carried bags of bread rolls for the villagers who live up there in the clouds. This was the most valuable gift for these people who do everything together – today they work the field of one and he prepares the modest lunch, tomorrow again everyone goes to the field of another… If someone gets sick, the healer treats him without asking for money, because he knows that his gift will dry up. This is not just superstition. This is the realization that humanity has no price. It is innate and is a blessing. Only together can people be sustainably successful.

Do you travel with the aim of finding new ways to make money?

Hmm… I wouldn’t call it that. I shoot films because I am an tireless discoverer. Yes, they bring money when sold, to put it most literally. But not all films are financially successful, nor is the purpose of making them that. A large part of the films we have created over the years, we have given away for free, because we believe that there is at least one person on the other side of the screen who will take the baton and at least one more good thing will happen for someone, somewhere. Most of the topics I have told in films are about my understanding of the world, which I want to share, to find like-minded people in this to preserve this beautiful and fragile world. Today the documentary series with the catchy title "Bez bagazh" is watched on five continents on some of the largest television channels. Who would have guessed back in 2006 that people in Brazil, Brunei or even Spain, with equal curiosity would want to see the world through our eyes, with our emotion, that the series would be broadcast on national television channels, without a single frame of censorship… If making money was the foundation on which we build, this would never have happened. The satisfaction is incomparable when you have learned the language of the heart and can speak with everyone on this earth.

What lessons about financial independence have you learned from different economies and cultures?

If you have a craft in your hands, you will always survive.

According to Vis it better to spend on experiences, instead of material possessions?

We have spent on filming trips amounts like for quite a luxurious material life. If I have to choose between a month on the islands of the Fiji archipelago with my family and a few new episodes instead of a brand new car, yes, Fiji is my choice! We constantly invest in new projects for new episodes. Maybe this answers the question.

How do you see the future of digital nomadic life?

It seems we will finally have true freedom!

Are there specific countries that are more favorable for work and investments?

I haven’t explored the world from this perspective. My scale for evaluating a destination starts with criteria for the goodness and morality of people. No job or investment will be successful if people are lazy, envious, human values are suppressed by external influences or melted by an imposed environment with corruption. If the goal is money, then artificial intelligence and robotization will soon discover new horizons. But if I have to choose which stories to tell, the places I would head to are becoming fewer.

If you could choose one place in the world to develop your next big idea, what would it be and why?

Bulgaria is the center that keeps me in shape. This is my place. And the ideas – they flow from me everywhere.

What are the destinations that you would definitely recommend to be visited and why?

It is irreplaceable for the ego and vanity to see the poorest countries and people. For me, these travels are the most important for the modern materially obsessed person. Take the most necessary things for the children there – clothes, educational materials, hygiene supplies. When you see how shocking gratitude is in their eyes, you will understand the meaning of being a person who can be helpful.

What makes you jump out of bed eagerly to start doing it – that is yours!