Strange Culture
by Lynn Hershman Leeson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Josh Kornbluth, Peter Coyote, Steve Kurtz, Thomas Jay Ryan, Tilda SwintonDirector: Lynn Hershman Leeson
Brand: NEW VIDEO GROUP INC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: DOCURAMA
Movie Reviews of Strange Culture
Movie Review: BioArts first Martyr
Summary: 3 Stars
The oscillating format of re-enactments and the traditional documentary approach made this film engaging. However, if not for Tilda Swinton, this would have felt more like a student protest film than a true investigation into the bizarre events involving Steve Kurtz. Swinton's performance and even her commentary seems to have more balanced maturity than the other faces on the screen, including Kurtz himself. Swinton's co-stars simply do not have the naturalness that she has and so she saves the film at the expense of over-shadowing it with her prime talent. Having said that, this is an important documentary that deserves to stay in print for at least another few decades. Steve Kurtz is now a touchstone in history, even if that is not his intentions and if he doesn't want be one. It's strange indeed to think that today's Open Source Bio groups experiment freely with bio-organisms that Kurtz nearly went to prison for. Kurtz may not be the founder of BioArt, but he was almost the movements first martyr.
Summary of Strange Culture
In this moving and wildly innovative film, director Lynn Hershman Leeson tells the terrifying story of how one man's personal tragedy turns into persecution by a paranoid and overzealous government.Art professor Steve Kurtz's nightmare began on May 11, 2004, when he awoke to find his wife Hope dead of a heart attack. Paramedics responding to his 911 call, suspicious of petri dishes and scientific paraphenalia in his house (materials for an art project on genetically modified food) contacted the FBI, and soon his world was turned upside down. Only hours after his wife s tragic death he was suddenly a murder suspect, an accused bioterrorist, and a pariah to all but his closest friends.
Told through a unique blend of interviews, documentary footage, and reconstructed scenes starring Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan, and Peter Coyote, Hershman s critically-acclaimed film is a sophisticated, look at how the traumatic events of 9/11 altered American society and undermined its long-held values.
Extras on the DVD include: Theatrical Trailer, Filmmaker Interviews, Outtakes and Filmmaker Biography.
Though Lynn Hershman Leeson's third feature tackles weighty issues like national security and privacy rights, love plays an equal part in the picture. Three years after 9/11, Buffalo-based artist Hope Kurtz (played by Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton), dies from a heart attack. Her husband of 27 years, Steve (Henry Fool's Thomas Jay Ryan), yearns to mourn, but authorities notice bacteria-filled Petri dishes around their house and take him in for questioning (the Kurtz's subject was genetically modified food). Next, the FBI confiscates his computers, his cat--even his wife's body--before charging him and colleague Robert Ferrell (Peter Coyote) with bioterrorist intentions, culminating in indictments for mail and wire fraud. As in Hershman Leeson's previous projects with Swinton, Conceiving Ada and Teknolust, science and art co-mingle. This time, though, she merges interviews, dramatic recreations, and Kurtz himself, which initially proves distracting--he looks nothing like Ryan--but his first-person testimony adds weight to the actor's believable performance. Though the director grapples with big ideas, she never loses sight of the people behind them. Her intentionally one-sided portrait of an insular art world flirts with pretension, but for those truly concerned about the issues at hand--and the humans affected by them--Strange Culture will surely break a few hearts. At the time of filming, Kurtz's case remained unresolved, but the opening title conveys both optimism and respect: "This film is dedicated to Hope." Extras include an interview with the subject and a comprehensive profile of the filmmaker. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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