Dadetown is a perfect fake documentary, that cannot be distinguished from the real thing. With it, director Russ Hexter demonstrates his great talent; it is tragic that he died so young (aged 27). The film is called by the makers themselves a ‘meta-documentary’, but we can embrace the words of Caryn James of The New York Times, in calling it a film ‘beyond categories’. For a brief item about small-town America, a film crew visits Dadetown (a fictitious town compiled from several locations by the makers). They gradually start to realise they are at the right place and the right time to make a longer film. The town is in a severe identity crisis. The old metal factory that for generations guaranteed economic security in the town is threatened with closure. After an invasion by a rich high-tech company, the peaceful town finds itself in a social crisis that culminates in a strike.Hexter has prepared his fake documentary well. The locations have been chosen with care and the dozens of characters who take part in the film have been cast for their capacity to present themselves naturally and to improvise. To a certain extent, you could say that Hexter documents a real process with his minutely detailed forgery. Dadetown says a lot about the social-economic situation of a small town that is at the mercy of the globalising economy. Hexter lies the truth. (GjZ)
