"Filmmaker Documents Case Against Professor:

Sundance To Screen Story About Artist"

Dan Herbeck, Buffalo News

The unusual case of Steven Kurtz is still a long way
from its conclusion at Buffalo's federal court, but a
California filmmaker already has made a movie about
it.

And the film about Kurtz — a University at Buffalo art
professor who faces federal charges for obtaining
bacteria cultures and growing them in his home — will
be shown next month at the prestigious Sundance Film
Festival.

"Strange Culture," a documentary featuring some
dramatized scenes of what happened to Kurtz, was made
by Lynn Hershman Leeson, an experimental filmmaker who
has won a number of awards for her work.

Leeson said she hopes the documentary will find a
buyer at Sundance and be released commercially. Even
if that doesn't happen, the 65-year-old filmmaker said
she considers the work an important one."Everyone involved in this film worked on it because
they believed in it. People worked for little or no
pay," Leeson said Thursday in a telephone interview
from her San Francisco home. "I got involved because I
believe the threat to artistic freedom is a critical
issue for our society."

Veteran film and television actor Peter Coyote is one
of the performers in Leeson's 76-minute film.

Kurtz, 48, is an artist and author who often uses his
work to protest or raise questions about government
policies.

The U.S. Justice Department has charged him with
illegally obtaining bacterial agents that were found
by FBI agents in his home laboratory in Allentown.

Kurtz's case has stirred controversy in local,
national and international art circles since May 2004,
when Buffalo Police and the FBI began investigating
him after the death of his wife, Hope.

An autopsy showed Hope Kurtz died of natural causes, a
heart attack.

Government attorneys have never accused Kurtz of
harming his wife or of any act related to terrorism.
They say they are prosecuting Kurtz because he
obtained the bacteria under false pretenses, violating
strict laws and procedures designed to keep them out
of the hands of terrorists.

Kurtz supporters say he planned to use harmless
bacteria cultures in an art exhibit. They have accused
the federal government of singling out Kurtz for
harassment because of his political views.

The case remains in the pretrial stages at federal
court and has not yet been scheduled for trial.

Leeson said she never set out to make an
anti-government film, but she hopes people who watch
it will be alarmed about the treatment of Kurtz and
the First Amendment issues involved. She said that, in
her opinion, the government probe of Kurtz amounted to
"character assassination."

"In the film, I've got art curators talking about the
questions that FBI agents asked them about Steve," she
said. "They asked them if Steve wanted to kill his
wife, and who Steve was sleeping with. They also
asked, if a bomb went off in Buffalo, would they be
surprised that Steve was involved.

"The investigation seemed to go into a territory that
I'm very surprised it would go into."

Buffalo FBI spokesman Paul M. Moskal said Kurtz's work
as a protest artist had no impact on how the
investigation was conducted. He said people who have
criticized the FBI's work on the case are not aware of
all the circumstances.

"Our agents went there because of concerns about a
possible biohazard at the Kurtz home, which was seen
by first responders, including Buffalo police and
firefighters," Moskal said. "All the evidence will
come out when it goes to trial, and a jury can decide
whether [Kurtz] is guilty or not. The fact that he's
an artist has nothing to do with it."

Why didn't Leeson wait until Kurtz's trial was over to
make her film?

"This is a film about something that already happened,
and about things that are happening now," Leeson said.
"In a sense, it doesn't matter if you wait for the
trial. In a sense, our culture itself is already on
trial when an artist is silenced."

Kurtz's indictment in June 2004 triggered public
protests in Buffalo and a number of other cities in
the United States and Europe.

Leeson said her film includes footage from those
protests "and things that were sent to me by people
all over the world."

Kurtz, who did not return calls seeking his comment on
the project, is interviewed several times in the film.
The film also includes footage of Kurtz's attorney,
Paul J. Cambria, and the prosecutor, Assistant U.S.
Attorney William J. Hochul Jr., speaking to the media.
Several artists who have worked with Kurtz also are
interviewed.

The film was completed earlier this month. It cost
about $50,000 to make, but people who support Kurtz
donated about $300,000 worth of services and
equipment, Leeson said.

Leeson said she is excited that the film will be shown
four times during the annual Sundance Festival, which
showcases independent filmmakers and was founded in
Utah by actor and director Robert Redford.