Documentary of the week – Print the Legend
DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK: Netflix’s Print the Legend. It is hard for some of us here to admit that we lived through the PC revolution almost 40-something years ago, but those that have followed the tech scene back then remember the epic battles of the tycoons and corporations and the competition of different gadgets and products. Print the Legend traces those very similar stories to take us into the heart of the nascent 3D Printing revolution. It looks at how the industry has evolved — and at the three very different figures who are driving the evolution: Bre Pettis, co-founder and former CEO of MakerBot Industries — the poser, more concerned with carving an image for himself as the next Steve Jobs, but whose products demonstrated the viability of mass produced 3D printers. Maxim Lobovsky, co-founder and CEO of Formlabs — the craftsman, who uses his technical prowess to push the technical boundaries of the technology and fights deep-pocketed corporations trying to profit of his success. And Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed — the anarchist, whose extreme libertarian views brought us the 3D printed gun, and who has shaped the conversation on the very nature of the technology and its power to liberate the individual. The film was released in 2014, so a lot has happened since. But it captures that unique moment in the rise of an industry that is still trying to figure out its identity. You can watch the film on Netflix here (runtime: 1:40:00).