Vitalik Buterin, the original creator of the Ethereum blockchain, is one of the most recognizable figures of the cryptocurrency industry.

The documentary "Vitalik: An Ethereum Story" offers a unique glimpse into the life and mind of Vitalik Buterin, the renowned co-creator of Ethereum. This film, directed by Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci, takes viewers on a journey through Buterin's early years in Russia, his family's immigration to Toronto, Canada, and his formative high school experiences where his passion for computers and technology ignited.

As Buterin's story unfolds, the documentary highlights his pivotal role in Toronto's Bitcoin community, where he witnessed firsthand the potential of the asset to provide individuals with financial freedom. This sparked Buterin's interest in exploring how similar concepts could be applied to other domains.

Driven by this curiosity, Buterin embarked on a mission to create the blockchain version of the internet, which culminated in the creation of Ethereum.

The film also sheds light on the strong ties Toronto has to Ethereum's early days. It was in this city that some of the first Ethereum developer hackathons and meetups were organized by Ethereum's Canadian co-founders.

This year, CoinDesk's Consensus 2023 will take place in Toronto from May 14-16, showcasing Canada's dynamic crypto community.

Throughout the documentary, viewers will witness various stages of Ethereum's lifetime, including the launch of the network and the challenges Buterin faced in his new leadership role. The film captures the rapid growth of the blockchain during the NFT era and underscores the importance of the Merge in reducing Ethereum's energy consumption.

Moreover, the documentary showcases Buterin's dedication to helping Ukraine in its war with Russia by deploying crypto to provide resources to those in need.

CoinDesk had the opportunity to sit down with Temple and Ingrasci to discuss their perspectives on creating the film, which is set for global release on April 15.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

CoinDesk: What drew you to make a documentary about Ethereum and what was the biggest technical aspect of the film that was interesting to cover?

Zach Ingrasci: So Chris and I have been making documentaries together for 15 years now. We make character driven documentaries, so I really love those human stories that give us insight into the emotions and motivations of people in really interesting places. We aren't crypto experts, but we both studied economics, so we have a bit of understanding of finance. But when we met Vitalik in 2021 I think he immediately clicked something in our brains like: “oh, here’s a story that kind of breaks the stereotypes that mainstream audiences have of this space.” Quickly after meeting Vitalik, we did an NFT crowdfund for the film on mirror.xyz, peoplepleaser did the NFT. We raised basically the full budget of the film, and it allowed us to create this independent story and approach to follow Vitalik around the world, as, he lives out of a 40 liter backpack.

CoinDesk: The film walks through various stages of Ethereum’s history, and it’s clear that a lot of care went into selecting which moments in Ethereum’s lifetime to include in Vitalik’s story. One noticeable moment I thought was interesting that you left out was not to include the 2016 DAO hack. Why exclude that key moment in Ethereum’s history but leave in other moments?

ZI: This is the challenge of making these films. We had a very broad mandate, following the community, not just focused on Vitalik. And then after two years of filming, we realized that the kind of narrative structure would only make sense if you were able to follow one person and then get to meet the community through his eyes. The DAO hack is very confusing to explain, and so there’s an element of just what at its essence is important. And I think, you know, the moment for Vitalik to decide whether the Ethereum Foundation would be nonprofit versus for profit is a very understandable concept for a mainstream audience. They get it.

CoinDesk: And at the premiere a few months ago, it was only accessible to people on-chain. So if the movie is aimed for a mainstream audience, why first decide to release it on-chain, instead of a streaming platform where more of those folks can access it?

ZI: I think it’s a practical answer. The documentary industry is broken, so to have an independent film premiere on a mainstream platform doesn't even mean anything, unless you have real marketing. And so actually, the on-chain release, the NFT, the trailer release on Zora, building sponsorship for this mainstream release is critical. People love the film, and have rallied behind it and been interested and been sharing it with their moms, being like: "Hey, this is what I do for a living." This isn't just our film, this film belongs to the community. And I think empowering people with it at that first step, and using the