Strange Culture was a very powerful and relevant documentary about bio-tech artist Steve Kurtz. It was relevant to our class because of Kurtz’s involvement with bio-tech art and Critical Art Ensemble. The film was powerful because of the creative storytelling of Lynn Hershman Leeson and the acting by Tilda Swinton and Thomas Jay Ryan. The stroy they told was phenomenal because it seemed to accurately re-create the events that unfolded without breaking the law for disclosure of details from an active case. Leeson let the audience know that Swinton and Ryan were acting, yet also made it clear that their actions were accurate representations of what actually occurred.
As I watched this movie, I was dumbfounded by the government’s interactions with Kurtz and how ludicrous their claims were. It gave me a new perspective on the paranoia level of the government in the post 9/11 era. The segment of the movie that discussed how the FBI investigator thought it was relevant that there were Arabic writings on an invitation to Kurtz in his house is a example of how paranoid the government was. Another poignant example of how absurdly paranoid the government was is that although Kurtz did not break any law by buying the chemicals, he was charged with a crime based on that purchase and his quirky behaviors, like tin-foiling his windows.
The aspect of the movie that really affected me was the analysis of what would happen if Kurtz had been convicted for bioterrorism. United States citizens’ civil rights would be significantly curtailed. Thank god he wasn’t convicted.
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