Darien Native Shares Passion For The Printing Press Through Acclaimed Documentary

DARIEN, CT — For Darien native Kieran Blunnie, the printing press represents more than just a tool used for mass-producing text and images. It's a piece of equipment that expresses a labor of love for a lost art form, and Blunnie is now sharing that passion through an acclaimed short film that's receiving recognition from various film festivals and PBS.

"Neo-Typesetters" is Blunnie's debut short documentary film and serves as a "love letter" to the letterpress printing process and a place that's near and dear to his heart.

From 2012 to 2019, Blunnie, a Darien High School class of 2020 graduate, attended Camp Kieve in Noblesboro, Maine. From 2021 to 2024, Blunnie worked for and volunteered at camp's parent organization, Kieve-Wavus Education Inc., as a program and expedition lead.

Over that time, he was a steward of the organization's print shop which was featured in the film.

"I fell in love with the printing practice through that. Over time, I just got more and more involved in it," Blunnie told Patch in an interview this week.

The film is nearly 12 minutes and explains the history of letterpress printing since 1978, the year The New York Times transitioned from typesetting and classical printing to computerized processes. It also features the late Howard Bliss - a former Connecticut school teacher and founder of the Kieve Print Shop - who lived through the end of the industry and was instrumental in preserving the printing press equipment and the process itself.

As a contrast, former Connecticut resident Gabriella Amato is featured, a younger woman who found a passion for printing in the 21st century and strives to keep the art form alive.

"It looks humble, it looks a little bit disheveled, it's home to so many different kids' dreams and projects," Blunnie said of the Kieve Print Shop. "It's taking tools that have been used for over a century and giving it to a new generation, and I thought that made the perfect setting for that kind of story to be told."

The film won "Best Short Documentary" at the 2025 New York Documentary Film Festival, was an official selection at the 2025 Indy Film Fest Festival, the 2025 Columbus International Film Festival & Animation Festival, the 2025 Maine International Film Festival, the 2025 Aster Film Festival, the 2025 Binghamton SEFF, and the 2024 New Filmmakers New York.

On Thursday, the film was scheduled to air on New Hampshire's PBS channel, and it's available to stream for free on the PBS website.

"The film has two goals of showing off a very human form of connection that had so much of an impact on the world around it, but also I think there's really something about the process," said Blunnie, who previously worked at Colgate University and Hamilton College to restore their old printing presses.

After the collapse of the printing press and letterpress industry, many printing presses ended up at universities and museums. The Kieve Print Shop received its presses from the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in Boston, an influential advocacy group in the region that ran from 1877 to 2006.

In an age of technology, Blunnie said the printing press is "just more human."

"There's the historical value to it, but in the modern age, I have a computer, I have a laser printer. We all use the same tools every single day and everything looks so uniform and so similar. There's a part of using a printing press, using the letterpress practice, where you can see the human touch in it that you just can't see in something that's done on a laserjet," Blunnie said.

"I think there's something so beautiful about seeing the actual human impact on a piece of writing and on a piece of artwork in that kind of way."

Blunnie spent just $198 to make the film, which he says was mostly used to travel around and get equipment rentals. The film was produced from October 2023 to May 2024 in Hamilton, NY., Nobleboro, Maine, and Darien.

A political strategist during his day job, Blunnie said filmmaking has always been a passion, going back to his days at DHS.

He credited Spanish teacher Veronica Lima, AP U.S. history teacher Bruce Clarke, and Barry Palmer for sparking his interest through various video projects - an interest that carried through to college.

Blunnie noted he couldn't have imagined the traction his short film has gained, and he said it has motivated him to pursue other projects in the future.

"I don't have words to express how grateful I am and I'm so surprised. They're printing presses. No one has cared about them in 150 years. Even the ones in the documentary were outdated by the 1930s. They're relics, and they're perfect time capsules. I'm just so happy people want to see them," Blunnie said.

The Kieve Print Shop will be torn down in the coming years and rebuilt, according to Blunnie.

"Being able to preserve that space that has meant so much to me, and I know to so many other people as well."

You can stream Blunnie's documentary "Neo-Typsetters" on PBS.