Print the Legend

Filmmakers Luis Lopez and J. Clay Tweel's feature strongly recalls 2001's Startup.com (VL-9/01), with its portrait of young, optimistic tech entrepreneurs who lose their innocent idealism when confronted with the stark realities/pathologies of a big-stakes marketplace. Here, the business under the spotlight is stereolithography, aka three-dimensional printing. A few giant corporations manufacture industrial-grade 3D printers costing thousands of dollars, but smaller, maverick teams with an "open-source" ethic (committed to sharing processes freely for the common good) vie to bring 3D printers down to household affordability. Brooklyn-based MakerBot, fronted by quirky CEO Bre Pettis (who is determined to show that, unlike Steve Jobs, he is not a jerk—which proves difficult in practice), competes with Cambridge-based Formlabs, led by prickly genius Max Lobovsky, to bring mass-fabrication to the masses. Meanwhile, a furor is whipped up by Texas-based self-described anarchist (and, judging by his demeanor, aspiring B-movie villain) Cody Wilson, who fiercely backs 3D printing specifically for the making of plastic guns and firearms components, allowing anyone to become an arms manufacturer. Serving up a great cautionary business saga, as well as a tale of new technology's unintended consequences, this is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)