CANDIDATE.(The Talk of the Town)(filmmaking at the Democratic National Convention with Robert Altman)

Careful observers at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this week may notice an unusual encounter, one that the historian Daniel Boorstin might have called a pseudo pseudo-event. Alexandra Kerry, the candidate's daughter, is filming a documentary about her father's campaign. Cynthia Nixon, the "Sex and the City" actress, is also filming a documentary about her father's campaign. The two camera crews will collide when they both try to interview Ron Reagan, Jr., who himself will be trailed by cameras from MSNBC. And, finally, the entire scene will be filmed by the director Robert Altman.

Of course, Cynthia Nixon will be acting, reprising her role as Alex Tanner, the earnest daughter of the Democratic Presidential aspirant Jack Tanner, who was the subject of Altman's 1988 television series "Tanner '88." The original episodes, which were written by Garry Trudeau, followed Tanner (the actor Michael Murphy) in real time on the campaign trail, as he mingled with the likes of Jesse Jackson, Bob Dole, and, in an outtake, John Kerry. The joke, which gained momentum, was that many spectators could not tell the difference between Tanner's simulated campaign events and the real ones. Altman and Trudeau had created a fake campaign with better production values (and, arguably, a more appealing message) than Michael Dukakis's. When the documentary screened in France, it erased any lingering doubt that American politics was a televised pageant.

The gulling resumed the other day at a movie theatre on the Upper West Side, where Altman was filming a new episode, for a sequel that is scheduled to air in October. Sixteen years after her father's election run, Alex Tanner has become a documentary filmmaker who is at work on a film about him called "My Candidate." She also has a film student following her with a miniature digital camera, making a documentary about her. The point of all this camera pointing, Altman declared between takes, is that "everyone has a fucking camera these days. We don't live our own lives."

At seventy-nine, Altman has the appearance of a vigorous grandpa. All morning, he had been directing one of his signature crowd scenes: moviegoers filing into a theatre for the rough-cut premiere of "My Candidate," as Alex is interviewed for an entertainment-news TV program. Mixed in with the ...