From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Wed Aug 22 2007 - 16:04:43 EDT
The Critical Arts Ensamble has produced some excellent documents, many of which are published by Autonomedia. They are subversive in the best sense of the term and deserve our support. In solidarity, Jerry --------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY: New screenings of "Strange Culture" From: "Paul Zarembka" <zarembka@BUFFALO.EDU> Date: Mon, August 20, 2007 5:48 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Professor Steve Kurtz, SUNY at Buffalo, Department of Visual Studies, is being persecuted by the government. He is a member of the Critical Art Ensemble which is devoted to the intersections among art, technology, radical politics and critical theory. The story of his persecution is now being presented on film, first in Buenos Aires, coming later to Buffalo itself, Sept. 7 to 13, in the middle of a North American tour. The director is the award-winning filmmaker Lyn Herschman Leeson. The film will be presented at the Sundance Film Festival's 2007 'Independent Film and World Cinema Competitions'. Less than 2% of the submissions to the festival were accorded this honor. See www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=82870009 . The tour of the film includes NYC, Woodstock, and Toronto, to name a few among many other places nationwide listed below, including the West Coast. At the end of this message is a description of the film itself, and the actors involved. I forward the schedule which I received. Paul Zarembka ============= (PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY) Don't miss these upcoming screenings of Lynn Hershman Leeson's critically-acclaimed Strange Culture (http://strangeculture.net), which chronicles the ongoing story of artist Steven Kurtz and scientist Robert Ferrell, accused by the US government in 2004 of "bioterrorism" and now awaiting trial: Aug 17-23 Buenos Aires 2nd Human Rights Watch International Film Festival August 21-23 Albuquerque NM The Guild Cinema Aug 24-30 Chicago IL Facets Cinema Aug 29-30 Northampton MA Maine Street Media Festival Sept 8 St. Louis MI Global Fusion Conference Q&A with Lucia Sommer Sept 8 Buffalo NY Hallwalls & Market Arcade Benefit Screening Market Arcade Film & Arts Center www.hallwalls.org/special/special.html Discussion with Steve Kurtz Sept 7-13 Buffalo NY Market Arcade Sept 16-20 Pittsburgh PA Regent Square Cinema Sept 14-19 Seattle WA NW Film Forum Sept 21-27 San Raphael CA California Film Institute Sept 21-27 San Francisco CA The Roxie Theatre Sept - TBA Waterville ME Railroad Square Cinema Sept / Oct - TBA Oklahoma City Museum of Art Oct 1 New York NY MoMA Q&A with Lynn Hershman Leeson & Steve Kurtz Oct 5-18 New York NY Cinema Village Q&A with Lynn Hershman Leeson & Steve Kurtz Oct 10-14 Woodstock NY Woodstock Film Festival Nov 8 Philadelphia PA First Person Arts Q&A with Lucia Sommer Nov 8 Location TBA First Person Festival of Memoir & Documentary Art Nov 22 Toronto A Space Gallery Reception with Steve Kurtz TBA Los Angeles CA Laemmle Theatres The Case Strange Culture (2007, 75min) chronicles the surreal nightmare of Steven Kurtz, an art professor at SUNY Buffalo and a founding member, with his late wife, Hope, of the internationally exhibited art and theater collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). In May 2004 the Kurtzes were preparing to present Free Range Grain, a project examining GM agriculture, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), when Hope Kurtz died of heart failure. Police who responded to Steve Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the couple’s art suspicious, and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was illegally 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 long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, face trumped-up charges of “mail fraud” and “wire fraud,” punishable, thanks to the PATRIOT Act, by up to 20 years in prison. For more information about the case please visit: http://caedefensefund.org. The Film Since the ongoing nature of the case prevents Kurtz from discussing its details, Hershman Leeson has enlisted actors to dramatize parts of the story, skillfully interweaving dialogue with news footage, animation, interviews, testimonials, and footage of Kurtz himself. Tilda Swinton (Chronicles of Narnia, Broken Flowers) and Thomas Jay Ryan (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) play Hope and Steve Kurtz, and Peter Coyote (E.T., Erin Brockovich) plays Dr. Robert Ferrell. Strange Culture poses questions that are more universal than local at this point in our nation's history. How can artists whose works are critical of government policy continue to create freely given the escalating paranoia of the state? What liberties do we loose to “protect freedom?” The case of Kurtz and Ferrell is of concern not only to scientists, artists, and activists, but to anyone interested in contributing to vital public debate about the actions of their government. More information about the film, including trailers, can be accessed on the web at http://www.strangeculture.net For more information: http://strangeculture.net :::::::::: ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
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