Steve Kurtz' absurde historie - nu som film.



For halvandet år siden rejste jeg til Buffalo, NY, for at besøge kunstneren Steve Kurtz og lave denne radiodokumentar (og et indslag). To år tidligere var jeg stødt på ham til en konference, kort inden helvede brød løs og han endte som terroranklaget i en absurd retsag, der er og var et direkte resultat af post 9-11 terrorhysteriet. Udover at være en fantastisk spændende sag at lave en dokumentar om, gjorde Kurtz - en umådelig venlig, interessant og sympatisk person - dybt indtryk på mig, i det døgn jeg tilbragte i huset på College Street. Han fortale mig blandt andet om hans uvilje mod at deltage i 60 minutes (der ville tage den følelsmæssige vinkel på historien, konens død, og i mindre grad fokusere på det politiske) og anden journalistik der var under hans værdighed - samtidig med at han godt vidste, det var vigtigt hvis han ville vinde sin sag. Derfor er jeg også spændt nu hvor Lynn Hershman Leesons dramadokumentar er færdig - både som dokumentarist (hendes "take" er meget anderledes end mit) og på Kurtz´ vegne - for sagen er ikke slut endnu, selvom det oprindelige anklageskrift nu er nede på to helt latterlige og tekniske punkter. Hvis man tilfældigvis er i New York kan film og diskussion ses på disse dage:

Oct 1
MoMA
Q&A with Lynn Hershman Leeson & Steve Kurtz

Oct 5-18
Cinema Village
Q&A with Lynn Hershman Leeson & Steve Kurtz

Jeg vil se om det kan lade sig gøre at arrangere en visning herhjemme. Hvad jeg har set indtil videre var lovende, og at dømme på amerikank filmkritikere er slutresultatet særdeles vellykket (men det skal man nu ikke altid stole på :P - så jeg opdaterer når jeg har set den..).

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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
http://caedefensefund.org