LOURDES PORTILLO 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).

1998

• In Motion Magazine: Interview with Film Director Lourdes Portillo, "Not just the pyramids and menudo", Conducted by Fred Salas, San Diego, CA: HERE

• In Motion Magazine: General Info about Lourdes Portillo’s Filmography, courtesy of Nic Paget-Clarke: HERE

1997

“Lourdes Portillo: fiercely independent filmmaker,” article by Josh Kun, San Francisco Bay Guardian, September 17, 1997: HERE

1995

Filmmaker Magazine: “Anatomy of a Murder, Bérénice Reynaud on Lourdes Portillo’s The Devil Never Sleeps, an interview with Lourdes Portillo": HERE

1994

Lourdes Portillo is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship: HERE

1991

Lourdes Portillo interview with Cheryl Jackson for Squealer, March 23, 1991, Buffalo, NY: HERE

1986

Cinéaste: “Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo: AN INTERVIEW WITH SUSANA MUNOZ AND LOURDES PORTILLO”, with Lourdes Portillo, Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Coco Fusco, (Cinéaste, 1986): HERE