Strange Culture

It all starts with a real event, the arrest and then continuous harassment of Steve Kurtz from 2004 until 2008 for the sole reason that he used biological material as a kind of art form. The story, truly incredible, yet totally real, needs to be heard. It shows how, under the right motivation, the FBI can do almost anything to someone for no reason at all.

The film, however, is made almost like a conspiracy theory flick, one of those artsy, liberal, intellectual in your face things that don't gather the normal crowd of people because they are simply weird for a common person. You see a long haired university professor that works with bacteria as an art form in order to promote awareness of genetically modification in the foods marketed in the US. He is ridiculous! However, what happens to him (and his friends) is completely real.

Now, I think this story could have been told a lot better and it should have been because it is one of those tales that show how close a proud democracy can turn overnight into a dictatorship or a police state. There is one line in the film where Steve Kurtz says that if the legal precedent would have succeeded, the power of the Department of Justice would have doubled overnight, by simply allowing them to turn any civil misdemeanor into a criminal issue.

Bottom line: whether you will watch this film or not, Steve Kurtz is a man you should at least read about, get your facts straight, see how it could all have gone wrong for all of us if he (and perhaps a lot of people in his situation) would have caved in to the pressure.

At long last. A short,but compelling documentary that blows the lid off of two issues that have been making news of one kind or another: genetically modified foods (or GMO's),and the shoddy treatment of creative artists, in the guise of Homeland Security's usual draconian tactics. One element concerns an artist that was getting an art piece ready for an exhibition, that brought to light the concern of GMO's in our food. The artists wife suffers a heart attack & dies. When the artist phones the police for assistance,they arrive,finding the materials for the exhibit,along with some Arabic writing, and assume that the artist is some kind of a bio terrorist,and promptly arrests him. What follows is will break your heart & anger you. The screening I attended had a member of the ACLU present to answer questions that related to the incident (the court case is still pending).

This is an important movie to watch, especially for young adults and/or patriotic Americans who may not have heard about a tragic period in US history referred to as McCarthyism: a period when the government led an aggressive campaign against its own citizens looking for communist sympathizers- there was even a "House of Un-American Activities Committee" formed. Thousands were threatened, blacklisted, and arrested - mainly teachers, artists, folks in the entertainment business and government employees - guilty of nothing other than free thought.

Since 9/11, we and our government are acting hysterically. The events as captured in this film are evidence.

"Some of the basic principles of Americanism: The right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent thought." from Statement of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, June 1, 1950

This film is a must see if you care or about the arts in the current political climate, or for that matter if you care about civil liberties in general.

Strange Culture is very different from Lynn Hershman's other work--a unique documentary/narrative hybrid. An amazing and surreal performance by Thomas Jay Ryan. Though there is an amazing cast, the real star is Steve Kurtz, the Buffalo artist who is the subject of the film. Steve's heartbreaking retelling of his wife's death, and his subsequent arrest and legal wranglings is must see for anyone who believes are government is beyond reproach.

This film is powerful, heart wrenching, and an outrageous indictment of the current state of political affairs.

I came to this because its folded. It is consists of some unsophisticated notions about "them" corrupting food, some art about it, deliberately folded into the artifacts, a documentary about the making of that art, a profile of the artist, outside the documentary, a story of how "they" interpret the art as a murder plot and a documentary of that story.

And it has Tilda Swinton whose presence usually signals something profound.

But the film is too clumsy to do its work. You can roughly get the facts.

Its another case of an event that becomes caught up in forces no one controls... that finds its way into film by way of combat with similar forces. Those forces come from story threads, conventions, urges that this filmmaker is as helpless to control as the protagonist.

There's one interesting idea here. The character played by Tilda is the artist's wife, Hope. She is the genius of an art collaborative, who is not an artist herself in the sense of creating. She is the "explainer," who makes the collaborative work by providing the story hooks into what these guys do.

The story is triggered by her death. The authorities arrive and without her storyweaving ability, put together their own conspiracy about a conspiracy. This film could have used her.

This film could have been "The Lives of Others," with the Bush FBI in place of the Stasi.

Still, even if the film fails it is far, far more powerful a message than Moore could put together.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.