Speed Cinema Screenings: Strange Culture 7/24/21 1 pm

“Somewhere between documentary and dramatization, fact and impression, Strange Culture molds one man’s tragedy into an engrossing narrative experiment.”—Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

The surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist and professor Steve Kurtz began when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz's art, and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of agents in hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife's body.

Tilda Swinton, Peter Coyote, and Thomas Jay Ryan fluctuate between their roles as commentators and interpreters of the legally touchy subject of Kurtz as they deconstruct and act out his case. 2007, U.S., DCP, 75 minutes. Recommended for 16+