It is all about Money - my documentary teaser & journey

---

Hello Steemians,

Excited to upload the teaser of my upcoming documentary film 'IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY' on Dtube and to share it with the steemit family. It has been a taxing, often depressing and yet a life changing journey to make a film about 'Money'. It all started in 2015 when I was travelling in New York and got introduced to an alternate / local currency called 'Itacha Hours'. A jewish man Ariel had kept that note with him as a souvenir. We happened to chat at a local bar about how the current financial system is a mathematical fraud. He put it this way 'Let's imagine that there are only two banks in this town, You and Me. We offer loans of 10$ each to 10 people, that means there are 200$ floating in the market / town' 'Yes fair enough' I said. He continues 'So there are 200$ floating in the market but we are charging 10% interest, that means we expect the people to payback 220$ with interest. Those 20$ which are "Not There". So bankers are charging money that is not there in the market and hence money will always be debt and those 20$ will be paid from the profits and pockets of the people. It is like a game of musical chairs, someone will find themselves stranded when the music stops.'

It was starting to make some sense in my head. The idea of 'Usury' had always been a controversial topic since history. Someone even mentioned at the bar that Jesus himself was crucified because he had revolted against the greedy money lenders of those days. Ahhh ... It was all fitting like a puzzle in my head. The movie 'Zeitgeist' was the biggest eye opener about how the american financial system creates Fiat Currencies out of thin air. I felt a sense of urgency to make a film about money in my own country and wake the people up. I started to share my ideas with friends and family once I was back to my hometown Mumbai, India. In comes Ganesh Pareek, a dear friend and an award winning AD filmmaker. He supported the idea and gave me the right motivational talks and sorted out my logistics for shooting and I was ready with a DSLR camera, gopro and a microphone, to make a film about money and to change the world for good, well, only in my head. :p

The idea was to create a public dialogue on money and its heinous ways. What do you think about Money? Does the lack of Money worry you? Do you think Money Distribution by banks and government is fair? If we are the 99% then how can we bring the power back to people? Many such questions were asked to 100 odd people from various social and economic backgrounds. From a Beggar to a CEO, From an Artist to a Financial Analyst, Farmers, Corporate Employees, everyone was made to open up about their beliefs on money to acquire a comprehensive research on the numerous and often conflicting perspectives that people have. The answers were befittingly intense and contradictory and sometimes it made my palms seat with nervousness. One of the most powerful definition was given by a Sadhu (recluse/yogi). He said money is a 'Yantra' a magical occult spell that reigns over the consciousness of all people.

It was 8th November 2016, the world was different back then. The world had their eyes glued to the election results of Hillary vs Trump. I was travelling and living at a friends place in New Delhi those days, I had a scheduled appointment with an income tax commissioner the next day. It was a normal day and BOOM! The prime minister of our country, Mr. Narendra Modi, announced in an unscheduled public address, that all the 500 and 1000 rupee notes would no longer be considered a legal tender and they were as good as a piece of paper until you go to a nearest bank and get them replaced with the new 500 and 2000 rupee notes. It was a historic decision and the government said it was done to catch all those people who were hiding 'Black Money' in their secret lockers. The country was given 50 days till 31st Dec to get all the exchanges done. I realised that the only money I had were all 500 rupee notes which had no value. Even the income tax commissioner whom I was supposed to interview went off the radar and stopped answering my calls, he surely must have had a lot to worry about. Trump was declared president on the other side of the planet.

Next day I went out to the market and the scenes were unbelievably chaotic. People swarmed the local banks and were waiting in never ending queues, elated, frustrated and confused. I thought to myself, What were the odds for such a catastrophic event to happen? while I was making a film about money and was travelling in the national capital? It all looked so surreal and suddenly it dawned upon me that yes, this was my destiny, I was supposed to show it to the world. It was then, that my own film became something that I had not envisioned initially. For the first three weeks there was an air of tension and uncertainty all around. It felt like civil war could break out at anytime, but nothing like that happened. However frustrated the people were, they waited in queues expecting a brighter future after 50 days. Demonetisation was a cake walk for me personally. I always managed to get favours from friends and family and I even travelled across India and kept shooting more, but not everyone was as lucky. Life those days was restricted to the bare minimum. Each and everyone was impacted by the shortage of cash in the market, life in the rural and remote areas of India was depressing. The poverty stricken farmers who just about manage to survive in this capitalist world were pushed into yet another challenge of exchanging notes and opening new bank accounts.

Nothing much changed after 50 days, it was only after a few months the government declared that 99% of the old notes were returned to the bank. What was being called 'Black money' had now become White and there was no record of it anymore. The government said that there were many positives to take back from demonetisation, at least we managed to open new bank accounts and push for a cashless economy, at least the money was back into the system and it would be supposedly used for the common man's well being. Many people including me still do not trust them.

I continued shooting and now my destiny took me to an event Learning Societies unConference where a group of thinkers, teachers and reformers get together to test their various experiments on expanding human consciousness. One of their important experiment is the local currency TUC (The unConference Currency) which they had launched for 5 days as an experiment. I was totally game to feature their revolutionary experiment in the film. It was a humbling experience to witness 500odd people of all ages to come together and discuss ideas about their local well being, local abundance and local money. Though the currency is still in it's experimental phase, but the fact that people have already started to take their life in their own hands leaves me with a ray of hope.

It took us few months to edit the film and make sense of what was occurring, then one day my producer Ganesh invited me to a 'Blockchain Conference'. It was eye opening to know that 750+ digital currencies were already launched after Bitcoin and soon it crossed the 17,000$ mark as it made global news. It is exhilarating to be a part of this ongoing revolution in a small way. Hence, here I am on Steemit, exploring new possibilities and communities while our politicians discuss in parliament about how to stop us from taking this bullet train into the future and taking the idea and philosophy of money into our own hands.

The New and Old worlds are ready to collide, do wear your seat belts. Bon Voyage.

** I will be posting many such blogs about my experiences, do follow, upvote, resteem, share and care**

Cheers, Love all!

---

▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS