The almost true story about friendship, love and the Bear

Kasia: “I don’t know where to begin with my Bear Me story as it has already been 10 years since I first started working on it…

It all began in Poland in 2010. I was really stressed about what topic I should pick for my diploma movie, so I took a nap. During 15 minutes of lucid dreaming, I saw a silly girl taking care of a huge bear. I did not get the whole idea straight away. I knew that I wanted to make a cheerful, funny movie, something different than I made before. About a week later, I got a confirmation on the exchange program at Animationsinstitut. So I came to Ludwigsburg with a draft idea and my awkward English.

Besides the underestimated power of a subconscious mind, Andreas Hykade and the weeklies with other students from my diploma year played a huge role in my storytelling process. I learned a lot about the professional production of animation.

For me Bear Me was a simple story, not the best animated and I really didn’t expect that it would live its own life for such a long time. But it did. I received nearly 20 awards at festivals around the world. Just after the polish premiere I got a proposition from my friend Grzegorz Wacławek, who had just opened an animation studio, to make an animated series based on my diploma movie. We finished 13 episodes in 2014 and launched it for free on our YouTube channel.

It was nice and motivating to get feedback from internauts and fans of the bear from around the globe. We are currently working on the second season of Bear Me story that we plan to release at the turn of 2020 and 2021.

I’m very grateful for all this time during the production of my diploma where I met fantastic people and learned tons of stuff. This tiny bear story had a great impact on my life.”