Artist Steve Kurtz woke one morning to find his wife dead beside him. When the emergency responders entered his house, they noticed his makeshift biology lab in an adjacent room. Kurtz was a member of the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), whose performances dealt with biotechnology, requiring benign biological samples for such interventionist actions as Free Range Grain and Flesh Machine. Though no biohazards were found in Kurtz's home, he was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of bioterrorism. A politically oriented artist thus became a convenient stooge for the Patriot Act. A similarly minded artist, Lynn Hershman Leeson (Teknolust, Conceiving Ada) began her hybrid documentary while Kurtz's travails were in full swing. Strange Culture incorporates intriguing reenactments by Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan, Josh Kornbluth, and others that depict aspects of the story Kurtz was legally forbidden to discuss even as international support for his defense grew. Kurtz's anti-GMO activism made him the perfect foil for law enforcement now guided by Homeland Security and its ideology of unending danger. As the weight of government came to bear on a single, stalwart artist, Kurtz attracted many activist allies willing to share the burden. Then one became many.