Strange Culture

The surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist and professor Steve Kurtz began when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who responded to Kurtz’s 911 call deemed Kurtz’s art suspicious and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife’s body. Today Kurtz and his long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, await a trial date.

“A strange and compelling Kafka-esque account of an American artist caught up in Bush's war on terror.” (Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter)

“Filmmaker Lynn Hershman-Leeson spins an essay on art, government, play-acting, and paranoia; it's easily her best film yet.” (Ty Burr, Boston Globe)

“Younger filmmakers should be looking to Hershman-Leeson for lessons on how to reinvent old forms while at the same time telling an urgently topical story.” (John Anderson, Variety)