Liz Garbus' documentary Love, Marilyn will have its U.S. premiere at the 20th edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival in the tony Long Island, NY town of East Hampton, while David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook will open HIFF in neighboring Southampton the following day. Both films debuted recently at the Toronto International Film Festival, with Playbook picking up the Audience Prize over the weekend. Fellow TIFF title Argo by Ben Affleck will screen as the five-day festival's Centerpiece, while Paramount Vantage's Not Fade Away will close out the event.
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Just a couple of days into the Toronto International Film Festival this year, a curious commonality was noticeable in a number of the documentaries that I screened - re-enactments. While I only managed to see just under half of the nearly 50 documentary features in the TIFF line-up, it was surprising to see the storytelling approach — where significant past events are recreated via actors and, sometimes, animation — relatively widely employed. While some notable non-fiction films have made effective use of the practice — such as The Imposter or The Thin Blue Line — re-enactments more often feel in line with television productions of the Unsolved Mysteries variety. They remain a controversial element of documentary making, potentially challenging a film's authenticity by introducing an outside, fictional element. more »