‘The New Radical,’ a documentary about 28-year-old Cody Wilson, premiered at Sundance, but not without contention. We spoke to Wilson and filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough to find out why.
For the past three years, documentarian Adam Bhala Lough has been trying to figure out how to tell the story of Cody Wilson, the brash founder of Defense Distributed, an organization dedicated to 3D printed guns. It’s an ongoing narrative as Wilson, 28, has steadily gained notoriety as a vocal proponent of 3D printed guns and other decentralized technologies, appearing in a Motherboarddocumentary in 2013 entitled Click, Print, Gun.
It’s no surprise then that the new documentary about Wilson, The New Radical, triggered varying responses when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2017. Bhala Lough’s film is equally frustrating and illuminating, ping ponging back-and-forth between adoration and skepticism for its central subject. Some attendees didn’t find the portrayal to be so even-handed, though. In fact, Bhala Lough said at one screening, a psychiatrist in the audience “wanted to commit Cody to a mental institution.” Cody’s response? “Come on down, give me an examination.”
Read the rest at Vice.
