TELEVISION
HBO Unveils Cast for LGBTQ “Equal”
Four-part series chronicles key queer movement chapters
BY MATT TRACY
A four-part series based
on pivotal moments in
queer history, including
key events prior to
the Stonewall Uprising, is coming
to HBO Max in October — just in
time for LGBTQ History Month.
The fi rst part of the series will
focus on the roots of the Mattachine
Society and the Daughters
of Bilitis, a group for lesbians.
The Mattachine Society formed in
the 1950s in Los Angeles before
branching out to San Francisco,
New York, Washington, D.C., and
other locales, While the group has
a fi rm place in history for bringing
awareness to queer issues, it was
often perceived as too moderate.
Cheyenne Jackson will star as
Dale Jennings, a co-founder of
the Mattachine Society who went
on to lead the gay publication One
STREAMING FILM
Amid COVID, Inside a Nursing Home
Maite Alberdi’s hybrid documentary can be hard to parse
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Whimsy nestles uneasily
with despair in
Chilean director Maite
Alberdi’s hybrid
documentary “The Mole Agent.”
The fi lm begins with a high concept.
A woman hires private investigator
Rómulo Aitken to look into
the San Francisco Nursing Home
near Santiago where her mother
resides. In turn, Rómulo auditions
elderly men to live in the home for a
few months to see what conditions
there are like. He decides on the
83-year-old Sergio Chamy. Sergio
fi nds a retirement home where the
population is almost all female.
Alberdi exaggerates her fi lm’s
spy movie elements for comic affect.
Rómulo dresses in a trench
coat, and his offi ce is shot through
window blinds. When Sergio fi rst
Keiynan Lonsdale will star as Bayard Rustin.
Magazine under ONE Inc., which
was also an LGBTQ organization.
Among others, Anne Ramsay will
play an FBI agent and Anthony
Ró mulo Aitken and Sergio Chamy in Maite Alberdi’s “The Mole Agent,” which begins streaming on
September 1.
arrives at the nursing home, he
wanders its halls, carrying out his
sleuthing dutifully. But he can’t
help befriending its occupants.
“The Mole Agent” mixes its tones
HBO MAX
Rapp will star as Harry Hay, a
founder of Mattachine Society who
fi rst came up with the idea of the
group in 1948.
GRAVITAS VENTURES
queasily. That might stem from
the circumstances under which
it was made. Alberdi drew on her
background working for private
detectives. She approached a real
The Daughters of Bilitis was
founded in 1955 by Del Martin
and Phyllis Lyon, who went on to
become the fi rst couple to legally
marry in San Francisco after the
California Supreme Court’s ruling
in 2008. Lyon, who died in April
at the age of 95, edited the group’s
newsletter and turned it into an
important resource for lesbians for
approximately two decades. Shannon
Purser will star as Martin and
Heather Matarazzo will play Lyon.
The second part will spotlight the
the experience of transgender people
in the 20th century, including
the Compton Cafeteria riots in San
Francisco in 1966, a key development
in transgender history. Trans
individuals frequently dined at the
restaurant, but by the 1960s the
restaurant’s staff sought to drive
them out. Police raids and harass-
➤ HBO’S EQUAL, continued on p.31
nursing home about making a
documentary there. But she did
not tell them that Sergio was playing
a character. They thought he
was genuinely a new resident. The
fi lm crew shot during the week,
and Sergio used cameras hidden
in his glasses and pen on evenings
and weekends as cover.
At fi rst, “The Mole Agent” seems
likely to play up its mood of pastiche,
complete with James Bondinspired
score by Vincent van
Warmerdam. But its intrigue soon
becomes a method for a deadly serious
investigation — not the one
for which Rómulo has been hired,
but a demonstration of the ugliness
of nursing homes. The fi lm’s
fi rst half hour can be summed by
the sentiment, “Senior citizens are
so cute! They’re also in danger of
➤ MOLE AGENT, continued on p.31
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