LOURDES PORTILLO (1943-2024) director/producer/writer

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Chihuahua, Mexicali and Los Angeles, Lourdes Portillo has been making award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues for forty years. Since her first film, After the Earthquake/Despues del Terremoto (1979), she has produced and directed over a dozen works that reveal her signature hybrid style as a visual artist, investigative journalist, and activist.

Portillo’s 18 completed films include the Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Columbus on Trial (1992), The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), Señorita Extraviada (2001), My McQueen (2004), Al Más Allá (2008), and her latest short animated film State of Grace (2020).

OBITUARIES:

APPEARANCES & INTERVIEWS:

2024

Lourdes Portillo interviewed by Bedatri D. Choudhury for Sundance Institute as part of a larger piece called “Back to the ’80s: Women Documentary Filmmakers Remember the Festival’s First Decade,”: HERE

2023

2022

2021

2020

Q&A event at Filmfest DC 2020, where Lourdes’ short film State of Grace screened: HERE
Lourdes Portillo interviewed by Professor Norma Iglesias at 27th San Diego Latino Film Festival 2020, where Lourdes’ films The Devil Never Sleeps and After the Earthquake screened: HERE
Q&A event at Houston Cinema Arts Film Festival, where Lourdes’ film Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena played in November, 2020: HERE
An interview with Lourdes Portillo conducted by Eduardo Makoszay, and a newly Spanish-subtitled version of Lourdes’ film Mirrors of the Heart (1993) on Corrientes website: In English: https://www.corrient.es/portillo-makoszay-eng En Español: https://www.corrient.es/portillo-makoszay-esp

2018

Post-screening Q&A with director Lourdes Portillo, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles: HERE

2017

2016

2015

2013

Sydneys Buzz, The Blog: “LatinoBuzz: Lourdes Portillo — Film Exhibition” by Sydney Levine: HERE

2012

BitchMedia: Adventures in Feministory: Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, by journalist Kjerstin Johnson: HERE

2011

Provost Lecture - Lourdes Portillo: Art and Poetry in the Struggle for Human Rights, at Stony Brook University, New York: HERE

2010

POV Filmmaker Interview with Lourdes Portillo: HERE

2009

Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award: Lourdes Portillo, "The Elegant Insurgent," by Renee Tajima-Pena, for San Francisco International Film Festival, April 23, 2009: HERE

2003

Project Muse: A Conversation with Lourdes Portillo, interviewed by Hector A. Torres: HERE

1999

ARCHIVES OF LOURDES’ WORK:

Lourdes Portillo archive, circa 1979-2012, Stanford University Library Archives, Special Collection: CLICK HERE

Archive Includes:

Production materials from Lourdes Portillo's documentary filmmaking career from 1979-2001.
Includes both pre and post production paper records, as well as moving image and audio materials from Lourdes’ productions.