wexner center for the arts


Film/Video

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Contemporary Screen

Area and regional premieres, films fresh from the international film festival circuit, award-winners and recent audience favorites...You'll find films you won't see anywhere else in central Ohio on the Contemporary Screen schedule.

Strange Culture

Post-film discussion with Nato Thompson on October 5

(Lynn Hershman, 2007)

Fri, Oct 5, 2007  |  7:00PM
Sat, Oct 6, 2007  |  2:00PM
Film/Video Theater

The hybrid documentary Strange Culture examines the case of Steve Kurtz, an artist/activist who was charged as a bioterrorist by the federal government after a makeshift lab was discovered in his home.

Hershman uses actors (Thomas Jay Ryan as Kurtz, and Tilda Swinton as his deceased wife, Hope) to discuss the case as Kurtz is legally prevented from doing so. Kurtz’s lab was discovered when medics were called to the house when his wife died suddenly from heart failure. Many believe the charges against Kurtz stem from his frequent criticism of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (75 mins., video)

Nato Thompson, currently curator and producer at Creative Time in New York, will lead a discussion following the screening on October 5. Thompson was working on an exhibition at MASS MoCA with Kurtz at the time of his arrest.

Trailer:

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