Strange Culture
Director Lynn Hershman Leeson
Countries United States
Duration 75 min
Synopsis
Strange Culture documents the ongoing and precedent-setting legal battle of Steve Kurtz, an Associate Professor of Art at SUNY Buffalo and a founding member of the internationally acclaimed art and theatre group Critical Art Ensemble. Kurtz was working on an exhibition for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. He was detained as a suspected “bio terrorist” and is currently part of an ongoing federal trial. As Kurtz cannot legally talk freely about the case, Leeson enlists actors to interpret his story. Dramatic re-enactments are woven together through animation, news footage, testimonials and interviews. The resulting film investigates the risk artists face when they question government policies in a contemporary post-9/11 climate.
Strange Culture documents the ongoing and precedent-setting legal battle of Steve Kurtz, an Associate Professor of Art at SUNY Buffalo and a founding member of the internationally acclaimed art and theatre group Critical Art Ensemble. Kurtz was working on an exhibition for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. He was detained as a suspected “bio terrorist” and is currently part of an ongoing federal trial. As Kurtz cannot legally talk freely about the case, Leeson enlists actors to interpret his story. Dramatic re-enactments are woven together through animation, news footage, testimonials and interviews. The resulting film investigates the risk artists face when they question government policies in a contemporary post-9/11 climate.