Good morning! Thank you for coming on to Diversity in Blockchain’s ChainChat. Here’s the next question in the chain left by our previous guest: How would you explain blockchain to an absolute beginner?

I always like to say that blockchain is like a book. Imagine it like a book of records, where each page represents a transaction and is connected to the next page. In a sense, it creates the ‘chain’ of transactions where the previous one cannot be changed or forged. It’s an interesting question for me because I did a lot of blockchain education recently. A few months ago, I finished an educational program which is called Blockchain Class. It’s an educational mini-series filmed in the studio, with nice visual effects, animations, explainers, and everything. We can chat more about it!

Is it a private course?

It’s not private, it’s ready to watch on the website called adafilms.art, and it’s actually the second project I did as part of my work for the Cardano community. The first one is what we will be discussing, a movie called Chasing The WADA Dream, and the Blockchain Class is the second. I’ve done these two big projects for the Cardano community. 

Amazing. Excited to talk about Chasing The WADA Dream specifically. How did you get into the blockchain because you’re a filmmaker?

Let’s start from the beginning. I come from the TV and film industry, studied film school, and worked in film, media, and television for 16 years. Blockchain always fascinated me from the beginning. Mostly because of this idea of decentralized thinking, but it took me a long time to learn about it. That’s when I realized that there are simply not enough programs. You don’t have anywhere to learn specifically. You have to go through the vastness of the internet and explore yourself. Nobody will tell you if it’s correct or not. It’s tough for me to believe everything being said on YouTube. You never know the exact truth of the materials out there. Working for television, I know you must double- and triple-check your facts. So soon after I started learning about blockchain, I discovered Cardano. I was mostly fascinated by its scientific approach, which works for my line of thinking. I liked Cardano for its vision for Africa, as well. It resonated with me. In my opinion, blockchain is a nice piece of technology, but it makes a lot of sense in Africa. It is a good use case there because they really have the opportunity to bring affordable loans, and a decentralized identity, and these sorts of solutions make a lot of sense in Africa.

Is that what inspired you to make the film Chasing The WADA Dream?

Yep! Absolutely! At that time, I met this group of people who focused on bringing blockchain education into Africa, and I said: OK, guys, I have filmmaking skills. I can help you with this ‘dream’ of bringing blockchain education and opportunities to Africa. Let’s make a movie about it and spread this information and inspiration. 

What would you like to tell us about the film?

Chasing The WADA Dream is a documentary that follows the story of several people who have this dream. This dream is to bring opportunities to Africa. We don’t know for sure if they will succeed or not. But this possibility, this inspiration, and the journey we are going through with them is very nice to see. I was glad to be a part of it. It’s not only about blockchain. It also looks into farming, for example. There is a whole aspect of agriculture and the solutions around that, using blockchain. These are the new opportunities they are exploring in Africa; within the movie, we explore these options with them. Again, whether they succeed or not, we don’t know, but it’s great to see how the thinking is also transforming.

Absolutely. Well, I’ve seen the film. I loved it. It had enough blockchain and enough non-blockchain information to capture the attention of anybody. Did you face any challenges when making the film?

Yes, quite a few, actually. I’m a filmmaker based in Prague, Czech Republic. Naturally, most of the film is happening in Africa. We had to find a way to manage all the crews. Part of the movie happens in London. Part of it happens in Switzerland. It’s a combination of all those things. Most of it, of course, is in Cameroon. This was the challenge: how to communicate and manage everything and I also realized there was a problem with the internet. What we, as Westerners, can’t imagine. I realized they had to find a way when they were sending me the footage, and it wasn’t easy. They had to cut the footage to the minimum to send me just a small amount! Normally, you can film for many hours, and you don’t care. You can send ten hours to the editor. But here we realized that was too much data to just send. So that was another of the troubles. We couldn’t afford to have very good cameras on site, so these kinds of troubles were technical difficulties in the sense of using different cameras. Overall, the movie captures the reality of things, and that’s important. As you mentioned, the connection between farming and real life because many people still think that blockchain is for technical geeks, let’s say. But that’s no longer true. It’s going to be used by everyday people, and that’s the message of this movie. Real people in Africa can use it, and it’s up to them how they will use it. They will define it for themselves.

That’s one of the distinctions that beginners especially have to make, that blockchain is not just cryptocurrency. There are all these different uses for the tech. How do you hope the film will affect the audience?

Inspiration is the key for me. Always. In everything I do. Especially in this movie. We had our first few screenings in African hubs, where I could really feel this tension, or rather an inspiration, in the air. It received a very warm welcome. I really appreciated it. I hope we will be spreading these good vibes further. Again, it doesn’t matter if you’re into blockchain or not. It’s a story of those people with a dream trying to pursue it.

OK! So where can people see it if they want to?

As we speak, a couple of festivals are deciding whether to bring this movie to their stages, especially in Africa right now. I hope I’ll be able to make an announcement soon. The movie, in a sense, is on a festival tour for another couple of months, and at the same time, we are looking for a sales agent to help with streaming services and potential TV distribution. It’s all planned, but we are trying to find the proper person. If anyone listening knows someone, please feel free to reach out! All the news will be shared on the adafilms.art website. Eventually, the film will be available online for anyone to watch. Right now, we are focussing on the festival tour and potential TV and streaming distribution. 

One more question: Can you leave a question for our next guest?

Absolutely. What inspired you recently? Whether that be a book/film/something in your line of work — what was that energy boost?

Thank you so much!