Jessica Zack April 15, 2021
Stewart Brand, writer and founder of “Whole Earth Catalog,” adjusts his hat inside the Mirene, a converted 1912 tugboat he and his wife Ryan Phelan call home in Sausalito. Photo: Stephen Lam, The Chronicle
For a devoted futurist like Stewart Brand, who is famous for his projections about technology and the environment, looking at his own past doesn’t necessarily come naturally.
Given his fame as creator of the iconic 1960s DIY handbook “Whole Earth Catalog” (described by Steve Jobs as “Google in paperback form”), and later as an influential technologist at the forefront of the personal computing revolution, numerous filmmakers have asked the Marin cyberculture legend to make a movie about his life. But Brand never wanted to waste precious time or energy on nostalgia. He said no to the idea of a biopic — until filmmakers Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado approached Brand in 2017.