A Dr. Monkey Movie Review

I watched a highly disturbing film on Sundance channel last night called Strange Culture.It's about the case of Steve Kurtz who's wife died of cardiac arrest and when the EMT's came to take her body away they freaked out over the art exhibits that were in the Kutrz's home. The Kurtz's were, part of an artist collective called the Critical Art Ensemble that did art that called attention to the corporations who try to patent live things and the genetically modified foods they produce. They also highlight how the US government is a tacit partner in the hijacking of our food supply by the multinational corporations.

When these paramedics saw the petri dishes of bacteria that were to be used in the upcoming CAE show at MassMOCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), they called the FBI who then proceeded to imprison Mr. Kurtz illegally in his darkest moments of grief. The US Government sought and obtained an indictment of Mr. Kurtz, they at first wanted to charge him with being a bio terrorist but when it became apparent that they could not make those charges stick, due to the fact that the bacteria he was using in the art show was not harmful nor illegal for anyone to possess, they decided to prosecute Mr. Kurtz and another man for wire and mail fraud, even though no fraud was committed. The government has spent millions of dollars to prosecute an innocent man who had the gall to make art that mocked and questioned the corporations who are fucking with our food supply. They have gone out of their way to try to make an example of Mr. Kurtz and in so doing they are trying to silence dissent and the people who speak out against the corporations like Monsanto and in a larger sense the US government under the Bush junta.

It's truly chilling to think that if they can prosecute artists like Steve Kurtz for trying to question what's in genetically modified food and showing the link to corporations who make the Frankenfood and the government, then who else will they prosecute and try to silence? Bloggers like me? People who don't consume enough? Poor people? People who don't sign loyalty oaths? Atheists? Jews? People who don't love their Reich wing agenda? Anti war activists?

I urge you to watch this film and to find out more about this case here. I fear no terrorist but I do fear what they've (Republicans and Democrats alike) done to our country and our civil liberties in this crazy war for oil. We lost our freedoms when they passed the Patriot Act and all those other laws that are used to fight the war of terror.