American Documentary

Overview

March 15, 2021 – New York, NY – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this morning that The Mole Agent, directed by Maite Alberdi and broadcast on POV’s 33rd season, has received a nomination for Best Documentary Feature for the 93rd Academy Awards.

The Mole Agent made its US television debut on POV on PBS and pov.org on January 25th, 2021. The film is a co-production of Micromundo Producciones, Motto Pictures, Inc., SWR, Consejo Nacional de Televisión, American Documentary | POV, Orange, EO and ITVS with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now entering its 34th season.

Following Sergio Chamy, an 83-year-old Chilean man who is hired by a private investigation firm to infiltrate a local nursing home when a client suspects her mother is being mistreated, The Mole Agent takes its audience into the world of senior care. After Sergio’s training sessions where he learns to use his phone and the cameras the agency supplies him, he enters San Francisco Nursing Home and gets to work. He befriends the residents, locates his target, copiously and somewhat misguidedly documents his activities, and wins a popularity award at the home’s anniversary celebration.

However, as his investigation drags on, Sergio realizes that there is no rampant mistreatment of the residents, no case to continue to pursue. In fact, the real problem isn’t the staff at all, it’s the pervasive loneliness and societal and familial neglect experienced by the seniors. Forgotten and ignored, Sergio’s new friends are living testaments to the harsh consequences of isolating the elderly.

Beyond merely recognizing the disheartening reality of so many senior citizens’ lives, The Mole Agent offers something of an antidote: Sergio’s persistent kindness and empathy. Whether he is tracking down lost photos of a woman’s children, or patiently making sure that another receives her medication, Sergio’s warmth brightens the halls of the home, even as the real cause for his being there remains a mystery.

A film that has only increased in importance since the pandemic began and conversations around senior caregiving became paramount, The Mole Agent is a unique, heartwarming and humane film that centers people’s lives and experiences we tend to discard. Alternatively an examination of grief and loss, a reflection on our shared commitments to each other, and a boundary-pushing experimental documentary, Alberdi’s film solidifies her as one of our most distinctive and impressive voices in film.

Already a critical hit, The Mole Agent was an Official Selection of Sundance 2020, secured a spot in the Winner’s Circle at DOC NYC, received the Audience Choice Prize at the Cinema Eye Honors, where lead Sergio Chamy was also recognized in The Unforgettables category, and was nominated for a Goya Award and an Independent Spirit Award. The Mole Agent is the first Chilean film to receive an Oscars nomination for Best Documentary Feature. The film was also shortlisted for Best International Feature. The Mole Agent is Maite Alberdi’s third film to broadcast on POV, following Tea Time (2015) and The Grown-Ups (2017).

“This is a fitting honor for The Mole Agent which is such an endearing and empathetic film” said executive producer of American Documentary | POV Chris White. “In the months since the film’s release, its message and subject matter have become more urgent as we’ve collectively begun to examine the loneliness and isolation experienced by so many of our elderly loved ones. An enormous accomplishment of filmmaking inventiveness and warmth, The Mole Agent is a story we all needed to see, and POV is so proud to have invested in it early and presented it to a national public audience."

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. It's on POV where American television audiences were introduced to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, The Act of Killing and American Promise and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Nanfu Wang, and Laura Poitras. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries.

Over a generation, POV has championed accessibility and innovation in nonfiction storytelling. POV Engage works with educators, community organizations and PBS stations to present hundreds of free screenings every year, inspiring dialogue around today's most pressing social issues. The series' interactive arm, POV Spark, creates and advances experiential forms of storytelling and programming, redefining U.S. public media to be more inclusive of emerging technologies and interactive makers.

POV films and projects have won 42 Emmy Awards, 26 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

About American Documentary

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Acton Family Giving, Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust, Park Foundation, Sage Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Abby Pucker, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.