Did the FBI Shut Down an Indie Film?

By Jack November 26, 1999 3:59 AM

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The FBI asked a New York filmmaker to remove a Blair Witch-type movie short from his Web site, and when he refused the FBI persuaded the filmmaker's Internet host to shut the site down, the Village Voice reported on Wednesday.?The opening "crawl" for the untitled film, produced by Mike Zieper who uses the name Mike Z., read: "I don't know too much about this tape you are about to see.?I got it from my cousin Steve who's in the army...?If it's fake, then there's nothing to worry about.?If it's real, then we're in really big trouble." The film then goes on to show actors playing army personnel plotting to incite a race riot in Times Square on New Year's Eve.?Z.?was promoting the film on New York television stations when it came to the FBI's attention, the Voice said.?The weekly quoted Z.?as saying that he was visited by agents Dan Calemina and Joe Metzinger last Thursday, who asked him to remove the film.?"The implication was obviously that I would face a subpoena or an arrest if I didn't [take it down]." When he refused, the FBI and the U.S.?Attorney's office contacted Mark Wieger, who runs BECamation, the site that hosted the film.?Wieger told the Voice that he was visited by assistant U.S.?Attorney Lisa Korologos who asked him to "remove the content so that it could not be distributed." The U.S.?Attorney's office and the FBI refused to comment on the matter, the Voice said.

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