Map of the Underground

STRANGE CULTURE
Lynn Hershman Leeson
L5 Productions
Documentary
USA, 2007, 75 min.

Fri., Aug. 8, 11 AM, and Sun., Aug. 10, 11 AM, at the Drama Workshop, Salem Fine Arts Center

Friday	Sunday

The surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist and professor Steve Kurtz began when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who responded to Kurtz's 911 call deemed Kurtz's art suspicious and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife’s body. Kurtz suddenly found himself awaiting trial with his long-time collaborator, Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Actors Thomas Jay Ryan and Tilda Swinton play the Kurtzes, while Kurtz himself appears in interviews.

"Alternately teasing and terrifying, 'Strange Culture' is a near-perfect alignment of subject and form."
—New York Times

"4 STARS: 'Strange Culture' is an important heads-up to what is going on in our country right now in the name of national security, and a brilliant statement on artistic freedom and the dangers it faces."
—Film Threat

Tilda Swinton and Thomas Jay Ryan star in this dramatic re-enactment of a very stupid investigation. Steve Kurtz himself appears in frequent interviews as a narrator of sorts, candidly recounting his intense experience of grief and shock, specifically how he endured a second horrific layer of shock upon learning that he was not only suddenly a widower but also a suspected bioterrorist. Kurtz displays such intelligence and wisdom that he appears smarter than the entire band of bumbling investigators. This case was finally resolved in the spring of 2008, but we won't give away the true ending until after the screening. Additional interviews with Peter Coyote and original score by the Residents. -SC

Also playing on this program:
MAP OF THE UNDERGROUND (MAR YR UNDERGROUND) - North Carolina Premiere!
Hywel Griffith
Griffilms
Animated Musical Short
Wales, UK, 2005, 4 min.

"Map of the Underground" is an award winning short film that fuses poetry, music and animation. Set to music, the film takes it name from a poem, written and performed by the Welsh Bard Ifor ap Glyn, and is an amalgam of reflective memories of the poet's life and upbringing in London.

Hip, man. -GW