Terrorizing the Artists in the USA (by Michael Simmons at HuffPost)

[marmar]

Michael Simmons
Terrorizing the Artists in the USA


"This film is dedicated to Hope."

Thus reads the opening epigraph in Lynn Hershman Leeson's film Strange Culture that opens the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival this Friday, June 15th in New York. It's a lovely sentiment for our era of unremitting pessimism. When one realizes that Hope is not only the belief that events can turn out for the best, but a 45-year old woman who died prematurely of natural causes in her sleep, chills travel up and down one's spine.

The film chronicles Steve Kurtz, an art professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a member of the art collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). Kurtz awoke on May 11, 2004, to find his wife and collaborator Hope Kurtz, who had no prior health problems, dead. When the cops arrived and saw a lab and Petri dishes planned for use in an art installation about genetically modified food at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, they called all manner of federal acronyms, including DHS or Homeland Security. The FBI arrested Kurtz on suspicion of bioterrorism, an utterly false charge that should've been quickly cleared up.

Because Kurtz cannot publicly discuss details of the case on advice of counsel, Strange Culture delicately and cleverly threads together dramatization and documentary footage. Actors Thomas Jay Ryan and Tilda Swinton play Steve and Hope Kurtz. While the blatant First Amendment (freedom of speech) and Fourth Amendment (the right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure) violations by the feds is horrifying, the cruel treatment of a man who's just lost his wife is nauseating. If anyone still thinks that describing the United States government by using the F word -- fascist -- is an overstatement in 2007, then they should see this film.

Kurtz was illegally detained for a day, his house was turned upside down, and his work -- and Hope's body -- were seized for investigation. While it was eventually ruled that there was no public safety threat or terrorism involved, the Department of Justice (oxymorons are ubiquitous in Orwell's 21st Century America) continues to prosecute Kurtz and colleague and geneticist Robert Ferrell for wire and mail fraud, even though they followed standard procedure practiced by laboratories and universities.

The last three years have been a nightmare of filed motions and pre- trial hearings and still no one knows when the case is expected to go to trial. Kurtz and Ferrell face 20 years in prison, the same as the terrorism charges. It's a thought crime vendetta using alleged violations that are normally civil matters. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-simmons/terrorizing-the-artists-i_b_52261.html

[bonito]

1. K&R for the crazyness of it all.

:crazy:

[illinoisprogressive]

2. I hate the Bush people and as an artist, it is appalling as well.

[Karenina]

3. K&R!