Written by Wykin “Sunny” Harris
BTS Capture of Jellyfish — Dakar Correspondent, Linna for Cinema Basel West/Kevin Clark/Dakar
Chris Jai Alex, actor, voice actor, director, producer, and independent filmmaker hosted Linna — for a behind-the-scenes capture and interview of his second full feature film “JellyFish”. This is where apprenticeship meets authorship, and where the next creative-tech workforce learns how cinema is built from the inside out. Big shout-out to Chris, one of the most generous humans we’ve met inside of Hollywood, and a key mentor to the Dakar Apprenticeship Program.
Chris Jai Alex’s roots in Lansing, Michigan and his early creative path through music and performance, while Behind The Voice Actors highlights his voice work on characters including Lord Boros, Esidisi, and Drift. His public Instagram profile identifies him simply and powerfully as “Actor – Director – Producer.”
For Dakar Foundation, this installment is more than a set visit. It is another field lesson inside the real creative-tech economy, where apprentices witness how an independent feature is built from the inside out: the writing, the blocking, the cameras, the crew communication, the problem-solving, the trust, and the invisible discipline that turns an idea into a production day.
Jellyfish becomes the perfect Cinema Basel West story because it reflects the movement’s larger mission: documenting the past, present, and future of independent Hollywood from the ground level, to the directors chair, to the self-financing and deliverables to distribution.
This is where the new workforce learns that cinema is not only red carpets and final cuts. It is call sheets, lenses, sound checks, lighting decisions, safety, collaboration, and the courage to keep building when the resources are lean but the vision is big. Chris runs a tight ship, and that’s been evident through our over-the-shoulder experience on his sets,
Through the Dakar apprenticeship lens, the BTS capture of Jellyfish gives young creatives access to the kind of learning that cannot be fully taught in a classroom. They get to observe a multi-hyphenate creator carrying the weight of writer, director, producer, performer, and leader — a real-world example of what today’s creator economy demands from independent storytellers.
Cinema Basel West Vol. 5 honors Chris Jai Alex not only as a working artist with credits across major entertainment lanes, but as a builder creating his own lane, and allowing our apprenticeship program access to his professionalism, and belief-in-self determination.
Jellyfish represents the kind of independent feature that bridges Hollywood craft with creator-era urgency: make it, document it, learn from it, and let the next generation see how the work really gets done.
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