fwd: CAE / Marching Plague

[claudia westermann]

MARCHING PLAGUE
(USA 2006. Cert 15)

A new film from Critical Art Ensemble

Part of the AV Festival 06

Saturday 4 March 2006, 6.45pm
Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle
Tickets: £5/£3 (includes a glass of wine)
Tickets are available from the Tyneside Cinema Box Office on 0191 232 8289.

The World Premiere of a new film Marching Plague by Critical Art Ensemble is
presented on 4 March at the AV Festival 06.

Filmed on location on the Isle of Lewis in North West Scotland, the film
presents a powerful critique of UK-US bio-weapons research and addresses the
paranoia surrounding bio-terrorism.  It centres on Critical Art Ensemble's
recreation of some of the secret sea trials conducted by the UK government
in the 1950s off the coast of Scotland, which investigated the airborne
distribution of bacterial agents including plague.

Commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, Marching Plague will be screened at
Tyneside Cinema, and is followed by a panel discussion with Steve Kurtz and
Steve Barnes of US art collective, Critical Art Ensemble.  The film seeks to
expose the relative ineffectiveness of germ warfare compared with more
conventional terrorist weapons, and to highlight the diversion of resources
from pressing medical research to high-cost bioweapons research programmes
in the current climate of fear of terrorist attacks.

Steve Kurtz, a founding member of Critical Art Ensemble, is currently at the
centre of one of the most controversial court cases thrown up by George
Bush's Patriot Act.  In 2004 when his wife Hope died naturally of heart
failure at their home, Kurtz called the authorities.  The police, finding
science equipment and art materials used by Critical Art Ensemble's in their
ongoing work, called in the FBI.  Kurtz was detained and investigated for
bio-terrorism.  He was later charged with mail fraud and wire fraud.  He
faces up to 20 years in prison and the US Justice Department is still
seeking charges relating to biological weapons.

Marching Plague will also be screened at the ICA, London, in May, and is
part of the Whitney Biennial, New York, March - May 2006.

More information on The Arts Catalyst at www.artscatalyst.org

For press information, images and interviews, please contact
Alison Wright on 020 7249 4127 or alison at alisonwrightpr.com

The AV Festival 06 is the UK's newest, and largest, international festival
of film, digital arts and music, electronic art, games and new media.
www.avfest.co.uk

More information on Critical Art Ensemble:
www.critical-art.net
More information on the case surrounding Steve Kurtz's legal case:
www.caedefensefund.org

Marching Plague is supported by Arts Council England.