From: Carolyn Tennant (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Aug 23 2007 - 08:02:32 PDT
(Please note: I reserve using the all-caps ³shouting² tactic for matters of
extreme urgency. This is definitely one! If youıre in the Western New York
area, I hope you can make it to this important event. If not, you can visit
the ³Strange Culture² website, or the CAE defense fund website, to find out
about future screenings and benefits near you. For those interested, we will
screen this work on DVCam. Peace, Carolyn)
Benefit Screening of New Documentary about Buffalo Artist Steven Kurtz,
Accused of ³Bioterrorism²
MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS BENEFIT BY FORWARDING THIS EMAIL
FAR AND WIDE!
PLEASE HELP US ALSO TO EDUCATE YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS CASE. LET THEM KNOW
IT HASNıT ³GONE AWAY.²
IF YOU CANıT MAKE THE BENEFIT, PLEASE VISIT THE CAE DEFENSE FUND WEBSITE TO
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW YOU CAN HELP: www.caedefensefund.org
Benefit Screening of "Strange Culture" for CAE Trial Fund
Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 7pm
Market Arcade Film & Art Center
639 Main St., Buffalo NY
³You donıt have to be paranoid for 'Strange Culture' to scare the hell out
of you.² - Reuters
A special benefit screening of "Strange Culture", Lynn Hershman Leeson's
critically-acclaimed new documentary about Buffalo artist Steven Kurtz, will
take place on Saturday Sept 8, 2007 at 7pm at the Market Arcade Film & Arts
Center, as a co-presentation with Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.
Tickets are $10, and all proceeds will go to the Critical Art Ensemble Trial
Fund. The documentary, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival,
will have its Buffalo theatrical run at the Market Arcade September 7-13th.
The Market Arcade is located at 639 Main Street in downtown Buffalo, NY.
Professor Kurtz will be present to answer questions after the special
Benefit Screening on September 8.
The Case:
³Strange Culture² (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) www.critical-art.net Over the past decade
cultural institutions worldwide have hosted CAEıs participatory theater
projects that help the general public understand biotechnology and the many
issues surrounding it. In May 2004 the Kurtzes were preparing to present
³Free Range Grain,² a project examining GM agriculture, at a group show
called ³The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere² at the Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), when Hope Kurtz died of heart
failure. Police who responded to Steve Kurtzıs 911 call deemed the coupleıs
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 wifeıs 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
³mail fraud² and ³wire fraud,² punishable, thanks to the PATRIOT Act, by up
to 20 years in prison.
The Documentary:
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 a Spotless Mind") play Hope and Steve Kurtz, and Peter Coyote
("ET" "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 ³protect freedom?² 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 www.strangeculture.net
The Benefit:
Buffalo Art Community Joins Worldwide Support of Kurtz and Ferrell
Because the case threatens to establish dangerous precedent for artists and
for anyone exercising their First Amendment rights, it has attracted
worldwide attention, with fundraisers to support Kurtz and Ferrell organized
on five continents. On September 8th, at 7pm, join the many cultural
organizations, individual artists and scientists, and concerned citizens who
have responded to this outrageous, politically-motivated case, to raise
urgently needed money for Kurtz and Ferrellıs legal defense. For more
information about the case please visit www.caedefensefund.org
The Market Arcade Film & Art Center is located in Downtown Buffalo. For more
information about the Benefit, please contact Carolyn Tennant
(email suppressed), Media Arts Director at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts
Center: 716-854-1694
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.