STRANGE CULTURE

Director Lynn Hershman Leeson / 2006 / USA

Having his wife die of a heart attack was only the start of a very bad night for Steve Kurtz. His 911 call to report the death triggered events that would drag him into a Kafkaesque nightmare. After paramedics grew suspicious of objects in Kurtz's apartment, the FBI was called in. Hazmat-suited agents rifled through Kurtz's home, impounding books, his computer, his wife's dead body - even his cat. An associate professor of art and a campaigner against genetically modified food, Kurtz found himself and his colleague accused of ‘bioterrorism' based on his art supplies: Petri dishes and mutated flies. That was 2004. Today, his case still awaits trial after being postponed four times. Innovative and timely, Strange Culture paints a frightening picture of paranoia run amok in post-September 11 America. Cast includes Tilda Swinton.

D Lynn Hershman Leeson P Lise Swenson, Steven Beer, Lynn Hershman Leeson Dist Madman TD digibeta/2006/76mins

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