Join NYWIFT for a screening of the Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary, The Mole Agent. Followed by a Q&A with Maite Alberdi (Director, Producer), Marcela Santibañez (Producer), and Julie Goldman (Executive Producer).
Sergio is a Chilean spy. Sort of. At least, he is offered the role of one after a casting session organized by Detective Romulo, a private investigator who needs a credible mole to infiltrate a retirement home. Romulo’s client, the concerned daughter of a resident, suspects her mother is being abused and hires him to find out what is really happening. However, Sergio is 83, not 007, and not an easy trainee when it comes to technology and spying techniques. But he is a keen student, looking for ways to distract himself after recently losing his wife. What could be a better distraction than some undercover spy action? While gathering intelligence, Sergio grows close to several residents and realizes that the menacing truth beneath the surface is not what anyone had suspected. Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent is a stylish combination of an observational documentary and a spy movie, with sleek camerawork and wonderfully watchable characters. It’s a unique meditation on compassion and loneliness that will infiltrate your heart and never let go.
Screening Dates: Film available from Friday, April 9 starting at 9:00AM through Monday, April 12 ending at 12:00AM
Q&A: Monday, April 12 at 4:00pm EST with Maite Alberdi (Director, Producer of The Mole Agent), Marcela Santibañez (Producer of The Mole Agent), Julie Goldman (Executive Producer of The Mole Agent). Moderated by NYWIFT Board Member, Christina Kiely
How to See the Film: A personalized link will be sent to each registrant.
Cost: Free
Panelists
Maite Alberdi (Director, Producer) studied Film and Aesthetics at Universidad Católica de Chile. She is a writer-director who has developed a highly particular style that achieves an intimate portrayal of the characters she works with, through everyday stories in small-scale worlds. Her renowned personal hallmark has made her one of the most important voices in Latin American documentaries. In IDFA 2011, she released her first feature The Lifeguard. Her second film Tea Time (funded by: ITVS, Berta Fund, Tribeca film Institute, FFA, CORFO) won more than 12 international awards and was nominated for Best Ibero-American Film at the Goya Awards in 2016. In that same year, her short I’m Not From Here won best short film at Visions du Reel, and was later nominated for the European Films Award. Her third feature film The Grown Ups received 10 international awards. Her fourth film The Mole Agent premiered in Sundance 2020, was in IDFA’s Best of Fest, won Best European Film at San Sebastian Film Festival 2020 and is now the Chilean Official Entry for the Oscars and Goya Awards 2021. Maite works as a teacher of documentary at the Universidad Católica de Chile and is the co-author the book Documentary Film Theory in Chile 1957-1973. Since 2018 she is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and a Global Shaper Young Leader of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Marcela Santibañez (Producer) is a Fulbright Scholar, she studied film at Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2014, she acquired her MFA in Film Producing at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. She created and produced the TV show Chile Suena, winner of the Chilean National TV Fund. During 2012-2015 she resided in Los Angeles, where she interned at Participant Media and Tugg Inc. and produced a TV pilot and three award-winning short films. Upon her return to Chile, she started working as Head Producer in Micromundo, award winning director Maite Alberdi’s production company. She was in charge of the Goya Awards campaign for the film Tea Time. She produced the documentary Flow from director Nicolás Molina which premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest 2018 and won Best National Film at Sanfic Film Festival and Docs Valparaiso Film Festival. She is the producer of The Mole Agent and is now the executive producer of the upcoming film Gaucho Americano by Nicolas Molina and is producer of the films in development The Infinite Memory and The Workshop by Maite Alberdi. Since 2019, she’s been the director of programming at FIDOCS, Santiago International Documentary Film Festival.
Julie Goldman (Executive Producer) founded Motto Pictures in 2009. She is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer of documentary feature films and series. She produced Steve James’ Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough To Jai, and The Final Year, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, was released by Magnolia Pictures and broadcast on HBO. Julie is producer of Life, Animated and executive producer of Weiner, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Life, Animated won the US Documentary Directing Award, was nominated for the 2017 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and won three Emmys, including the award for Best Documentary in 2018. Weiner won the US Documentary Grand Jury Prize and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Julie executive produced the Emmy-nominated Facebook series Humans of New York, Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-shortlisted Best of Enemies, and several Emmy-nominated films: 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets, The Kill Team, Art and Craft and 1971. Julie also produced and executive produced: Emmy Award-winning The Music of Strangers, Emmy Award-winning Solitary, Enlighten Us, Southwest of Salem, Gideon’s Army, Manhunt, God Loves Uganda, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Buck. Julie received the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producer’s Award and the Cinereach Producer’s Award.
Christina Kiely has been producing and directing documentaries for over 23 years. Most recently she wrote and produced ABC News’ first digital documentary series, A Murder On Orchard Street. Kiely also co-produced the accompanying podcast to the seven-part series. In 2004 she was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the ABC News documentary series NYPD 24/7. While at ABC she also produced for the series In the Jury Room and the weekly news magazine Primetime Mondays. Outside of ABC, Christina has produced and directed numerous programs, including the A&E Biography of Yo-Yo Ma, 12 hours of the TLC series Code Blue, the PBS weekly news magazine Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television, as well as various documentaries for the International Labor Organization of the United Nations, including a co-production on migrant farm workers with the PBS series NOW. She recently directed a PSA for Rebuilding Together NYC.
Co-Presented with Cinema Tropical
This program will take place virtually as a webinar via Zoom. Please register in advance, and all registrants will receive a link to attend the webinar the day of the event.
We encourage you to download Zoom in advance.
Free event.
programs@nywift.org
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NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
