Bringing Down a Mountain — Future Money Final Grant Report #2

“The landfill is full, and so are the dreams”.

The Bringing Down a Mountain's director Subhashish Panigrahi and Interledger Community Ambassador Hollis Wong-Wear discuss the film at the premiere during Interledger Summit, Costa Rica.

Project Update

The short docufiction Bringing Down a Mountain (dir. Subhashish Panigrahi), made possible through the Future|Money Grant, dissects the intersecting themes of access, abolition and caste through the experiences of residents of a rural village and that of a hyper-urban city. Set in a rural village in India, this 13-minute film underscores community sovereignty in access to mobile data and the know-how and decision-making power of digital payments. Premiered at the Interledger Summit 2023 in Costa Rica, a DVD copy of Bringing Down a Mountain is archived physically at the U.S. Library of Congress, and the film is gearing up to be screened at major international film festivals. The screenplay by noted activist and poet Bharat Majhi includes long-form Odia poetry narrated by educator Monalisa Moharana and theatre maestro Debadatta Pati. Blackmagic Design published an official press release announcing the film with an exclusive interview with the director, and the Interledger Foundation published a podcast with behind-the-scenes updates.

Progress on Objectives (KPI’s) (progress on project)

Conversations between technologist and film's collaborator Arky A.R. and computer scientist and media activist T.B. Dinesh at the beautiful redwoods of Camp Navarro, CA, during dWeb Camp 2023 inspired the narrative on community-based technology.

Bringing Down a Mountain was intended to push the audience to examine current digital payment systems critically and reimagine a parallel system for the future. The film underscores how complex socio-economic and structural barriers prevent most people from controlling their lives and making digital systems work for them. A part of the film critically examines several systemic obstacles, particularly the Indian caste system's role in financial exclusion. The film's other significant part dives deeper into the collective leadership of the Bahujan—the majority of people who are also marginalised—to abolish the caste system and reclaim access. Majhi's powerful narratives starkly contrast reality and consciously lit a web of pragmatism while elaborating a radical approach to end the caste system. There is a strong critique of the platform economy and an apparent demand for it to work seamlessly for all rather than just the privileged few. Rather than loftily wishing for minor fixes to the existing digital economic models, the story asks boldly—“can we reverse the present oppressive ways?”

The film used solely Creative Commons (CC) and Public Domain media and was released under a Creative Commons ShareAlike Attribution (CC BY-SA 4.0) International License. A long list of open source software programs and libraries were also used to make the film, and an open source Citation Style Language (CSL) style was explicitly created to provide credit for such media. It was later released publicly under a CC License.

A DVD version of Bringing Down a Mountain is archived at the US Library of Congress.

Short video (3-5 minutes) Describing the conceptual thought around the process.

• Official Website
• IMDb Page
• Exclusive Interview by Blackmagic Design (in 13 languages)
• Podcast by Interledger Foundation by Lawil Karama and Hollis Wong-Wear

What’s Next?

After a short and much-needed break after the premiere, we have started submitting Bringing Down a Mountain to film festivals. Considering its intersectional and structural approach, we will continue screening the film in India, its premise, and worldwide. The screenings would continue with conversations with the audience, helping spur ideas for inclusive digital payment practices. We also plan to write about the learning for the academic and the larger research community. This film builds on Subhashish's 2021 feature-length documentary MarginalizedAadhaar which captured tech-based exclusions and a quest for inclusive design, and our long-term goal is to build a more prominent media narrative by merging the themes of these two films. While this was a speculative fiction piece, we want to make a larger documentary around these issues and themes. In a way, we're only getting started!

Community Support

We wanted to share our gratitude to the ILF team, particularly Lawil, Ayesha, Chris, and Ambassadors Hollis and Kokayi for their kind support during the entire journey. The diverse ILF community has been remarkably supportive too, and we will continue sharing updates here as things progress while asking for input. We also would stay connected with many, keeping doors for future collaboration open.