Art professor Steve Kurtz ’s wife , Hope , buy the farm in her sleep in May 2004 . When Kurtz called 911 , however , the law saw petri dishes and a mobile deoxyribonucleic acid - extraction machine and called in the Federal . Kurtz attempt to explicate that the high - school - level laboratory equipment was part of an prowess projection he and Hope had been doing about genetically modified food , but the FBI decided he was a bioterrorist . This case still keep nearly four year later , and a new direct - to - videodisk picture show , Strange Culture , expend Tilda Swinton , Thomas Jay Ryan and other worker to unpick one of the scariest cases of scientific discipline fiction dictate legal action in recent chronicle . We speak to the film director , Lynn Hershman Leeson .
The criminal prosecution of Kurtz continue , even after it was cleared his wife died of natural causes and he proved the bacteria were harmless . Another cause for the paranoia was an flyer in his family for an art show , which had Arabic lettering on it . Once all of these misunderstandings were cleared up , however , the Justice Department prosecuted Kurtz for chain armour and wire fraud , ground on the fact that he ordered the harmless bacteria via a Web site .
Hershman Leeson ’s first two motion picture are Conceiving Ada , about Ada Lovelace , Lord Byron ’s daughter who make the first computer language , and Teknolust , about a charwoman who create cyborg copies of herself . Here ’s what Hershman Leeson had to say about the case , and her new film .
Strange Culture uses a mixing of documentary , actors re - enacting the tantrum , and cartoons , because Steve Kurtz was advised by a lawyer not to remark on the typesetter’s case . Were you influenced by the movie American Splendor , which use similar proficiency ?
It ’s a coinicidence . I like American Splendor . My brother knew Harvey Pekar , and he used to add up to our home all the clock time … I think this really had to be a cross , there was no other way to make it … The cartoons had actually already been made and I just had to integrate them … I used sketch in other work , in the 1970s .
Did Steve Kurtz object to any of the ways Thomas Jay Ryan played him , or Tilda Swinton play his late wife ?
Not at all . [ We had ] a lot of leeway with his character , because he likes Thomas a circumstances . He say the only soul who could play Hope was Tilda , so he was well-chosen .
Strange Culture include a pot of information about the prevelance of genetically modified foods in America . Do you reckon many people are unaware of how widespread genetically modified foods are in this country ?
Yes . I think people are unaware of the expunging of habeas corpus as well , and they are unaware that this typesetter’s case is so important because it would [ permit the federal government ] to illegalize a civil kick .
The authorities ’s case is now entirely based on the mind that it can press criminal charges for a civic statute . Someone says in your movie that this would double up the phone number of laws the Justice Dept could habituate for criminal criminal prosecution .
It just gives hoi polloi more control . If someone accidentally makes a fault on a form on the internet , is it wire fraud ?
One of the most chilling scenes in the movie is when a professor acquaintance of Steve Kurtz ’s tries to win over some students to sign on the petition for his release . And all but one of the scholarly person refuse to sign , because they do n’t want to jeopardize their hereafter by getting on the government ’s radar .
That actually happened to me , word for word of honor . I was at UC Davis and I was trying to get my scholarly person to be aware , one , that there was a petition and two , about his type , and they were just afraid , they did n’t want to sign anything .
We ’re Brobdingnagian fans of yourprevious movie , Teknolust , which also features Tilda Swinton . Is it just a concurrence that both movies are about creative person who try out with science and become incriminate of being a public threat ?
https://gizmodo.com/triple-tilda-swinton-happy-cyborg-dance-325667
Usually I apportion with technology or skill and art . I did n’t see that relationship before you mentioned it , but it ’s true .
Do you guess part of the reason for the fear of artists using skill is the fact that people think only “ expert ” or specially dependant people should be grant to do skill ?
I ’m not sure . it ’s just such a bizarre typeface that one ca n’t nail why . It had to do with the subject of his work , and he was knock the regime . And then his married woman died and there were unknown materials [ in his mansion . ]
And there has n’t been any movement on the character since Nov. 2006 , when your documentary ends ?
There ’s go to be a trial sometime this year . We do n’t have a date yet .
Are you ever extend to make another fabricated movie , like Conceiving Ada and Teknolust ?
I just wind up a book on Sunday about a vampire . It ’s really kind of an essay about ageing , so it ’s kind of part three of my trilogy , with Conceiving Ada and Teknolust .
Do you think there are a lot of restrictions on artists using technology and scientific discipline ?
All the time , and they also do n’t think it ’s nontextual matter because it ’s not painting . so there are all sort of literary criticism … There was criticism of photography when it first happened . It carry years before it was consume severely or considered fine art . Any time you need to use something new and that people are n’t familiar with , they think it ’s not artistic production and you ’re a mountebank .
What sort of restrictions on your employment as a scientific discipline creative person have you faced ?
Not being able-bodied to show my work , for as long as 30 years . And then the work was point , and mass got really concerned in it .
Does feminism affect how you portray subjects such as creativity or technology ?
It absolutely does . The major innovation in tech , the computer voice communication , [ came from ] Ada Lovelace , hokey word was invented by Mary Shelley . Cellular phone applied science was invented by Hedy Lamarr . The major influences have all been women , but mass continue to say that women have no aptitude for science or technology .
Do you believe you ’ve had a harder meter making movies and cope with engineering science because you ’re a char ?
I think it ’s very difficult for women filmmakers , or maybe it ’s me because I do n’t do traditional films . It ’s amazing I ’ve had as much success as I ’ve had . When I started out , I was paired with Todd Haynes , and then I was paired with Darren Aronofsky . [ In both type ] , we both gain ground awards , Haynes and I at the London Film Festival for the study we had done and the same with Darren , because he did a film called Pi just when I did Conceiving Ada , and people compared them because they deal with skill . I ’ve just had it much more unmanageable than my male person counterparts . [ Strange Culture , from Docurama ]
Tilda Swinton
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