Strange Culture

Lynn Hershman Leeson's docudrama Strange Culture tackles issues such as national security and privacy rights while also telling a love story. Three years after 9/11, New York artist/professor Steve Kurtz (Thomas Jay Ryan) awoke to find Hope (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton), his wife of 27 years, dead from a heart attack. When medics arrive, they notice bacteria-filled petri dishes (the Kurtzes were working on an art project involving genetically modified food) around the house and contact the FBI, who confiscate Steve's computers, cat, and even his wife's body, before charging him and colleague Dr. Robert Ferrell (Peter Coyote in a brief appearance) with bioterrorist activities. As in the director's previous pictures with Swinton (Conceiving Ada and Teknolust), science and art commingle here, but this time she also incorporates interviews and dramatic recreations, as well as appearances by the real Kurtz. Although Leeson—a conceptual artist herself—flirts with pretension in her intentionally one-sided portrait of the insular art world, Strange Culture will nevertheless deeply affect anyone truly concerned about paranoia and persecution in post-9/11 America. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include nearly 90 minutes of additional interviews with the filmmaker and Kurtz, outtakes (7 min.), and a text bio of the filmmaker. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a thought-provoking film.] (K. Fennessy)