Quick Cuts

POLITICAL VIDEOTAPING

In 1992, Robert Downey Jr. attended the Republican and Democratic parties’ conventions with a video crew in tow, resulting in the documentary “The Last Party,” co-directed by Mark Benjamin and Marc Levin. The latest actor to take the vidcam-convention plunge is Philip Seymour Hoffman, fresh off of a trio of critically acclaimed performances on-screen (“Flawless,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” and “Magnolia”) and a unique role-switching stint on Broadway (“True West”). Hoffman will fill the host role for “Last Party 2000,” to be shot digitally and directed by Donovan Leitch. Like the earlier “Party,” “2000” will chronicle the nation’s current political atmosphere, visiting the Republicans in Philadelphia and the Democrats when they reach L.A.

DARK SHADOWS

As the gray area between documentaries and feature films becomes grayer, Artisan Entertainment furthers the blur with the second installment of “The Blair Witch Project.” During the frenzy that greeted the original’s release last summer, many fans, fueled by a mock making-of documentary and Internet innuendo, were uncertain whether the events depicted were fact, fiction or something in between. “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2,” the sequel slated for a fall release, will no doubt add to the mystique, as it is being directed by veteran documentarian Joe Berlinger. Berlinger, along with Bruce Sinofsky, helmed the acclaimed documentaries “Brother’s Keeper” and “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.” “Paradise Lost” and its sequel, “Revelations: Paradise Lost 2,” about the grisly killing of three 8-year-olds in West Memphis, Tenn., and the subsequent arrest and conviction of a trio of local teenagers, will screen together theatrically for the first time starting Friday at the Nuart in West Los Angeles.