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That Time the FBI Threatened an Artist Interested in Military Drones


January 2, 2013 | Marina Galperina

Well, this is depressing, albeit not surprising. Turns out that when artist Omer Fast and his production crew were working on a drone-related art project and attempted to research said drones, the FBI wasn’t very into it. Not into it at all.

In fact, they tracked down the artist’s producer at his home in Los Angeles. Fast tells Photoworks:

We were told to stop what we were doing and threatened in suggestive, spy-movie language.

After Fast’s anonymous ad on Craigslist was followed by said threatening tsk-tsk from the Man, “our contacts went dead.”

But “dead” dead, not dead, right? What sort of spy movie are watching here exactly?

Here’s one: “Omer Fast: 5000 Feet is the Best,” a deliberately miscast, fictionalized art film wherein a military drone operator discusses the technical aspects of his job and “and the psychological difficulties he experienced as a result.” It was screened last year at the Dallas Museum.