 |
Lourdes Portillo | |
|---|---|
 Lourdes Portillo receiving an award in Spain in 2015 | |
| Born | Chihuahua, Mexico |
| Education | San Francisco Art Institute |
| Occupation(s) | Film Director, Producer, Writer |
| Years active | 1979 - present |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | https://www.lourdesportillo.com/ |
Lourdes Portillo is a Mexican film director, producer, and writer.
Portillo got her first filmmaking experience at the age of twenty-one when a friend in Hollywood asked her to help out on a documentary. Her formal training began several years later. [1] She has thus been making award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues both as a director and screenwriter [2] for about forty years. Since her first film in 1979, After the Earthquake/Despues del Terremoto, she has produced over 12 works that demonstrate her work as not only a director, but also an activist, artist, and journalist. While the majority of her work is in the documentary film genre, she has also created video installations and screen writings. The political perspectives of her films have been described as "nuanced" and versed with a point of view balanced by her experience as a lesbian [3] and Chicana woman. [4] Her films have been widely studied and analyzed, particularly by scholars in the field of Chicano studies. [5]
Born in 1943 in Chihuahua, Mexico, Portillo immigrated with her parents and four siblings to Los Angeles when she was thirteen years old. [6] Her father, being an administrator of a newspaper in Mexico and working on printing projects in the U.S, is one of the things that initiated Portillo's fond interest in stories. By the time she was in her twenties, she had gotten a job working for an educational film company in Los Angeles, exposing her to her future career in documentary filmmaking. [7] Wanting to work in a more livelier art film community, Portillo decided to move to San Francisco in the early 1970s. [6] She became a participating member of a collective called Cine Manifest, a Marxist collective that created documentaries and was slowly beginning to make feature-length films. [8] She began working as Stephen Lighthill's assistant in the collective's feature, Over-Under, Sideways-Down (1972). [8]
After working with Cine Manifest for several years, she apprenticed with the National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians in San Francisco, and graduated with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985 with special emphasis on vanguard and experimental filmmaking. [8] Afterward, she began her career as a producer and director of films. In 1976, she established her own independent film company Xochitl Productions. [6] She has been involved in multiple film communities and panels, working to encourage more Third World filmmakers into entering the film industry. In her early time in San Francisco, she became very close to La Galería de la Raza, a community-based exhibit space that opened in 1970 and served as a Chicano and Latino art gallery in San Francisco's Mission District. [8] She was part of the CARA Exhibit [Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation in UCLA] as an advisor, and was part of the board of the Film Arts Foundation and IVF (Association of Independent Video and Film). [8]
Portillo's films generally focus on Latin America and the experience of Latin American-born immigrants in the United States. During her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, she made her film debut Después del Terremoto in 1979 alongside codirector Nina Serrano, focusing on the experience of a Nicaraguan refugee of the 1972 Managua earthquake in San Francisco. [8]
It was followed by The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo , a 1986 co-production with the Argentine director Susana Blaustein Muñoz who she met during her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. [6] The film documents the actions of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of Argentine women who gather weekly at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to remember their children that were murdered or "disappeared" by the military regime. A turning point in Portillo's filmmaking career, the film won twenty international awards as well as receiving an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for Best Documentary. [9] Portillo's film audience greatly expanded beyond the U.S and played a major role in publicizing internationally the plight of the mothers and missing children. [8]
In her third film, La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Portillo focuses on the Mexican cultural practice Day Of The Dead and its revival and recovery by Chicanas and Chicanos in the US. According to Portillo, the film was originally supposed to be made alongside Susana Blaustein Muñoz, and together put in an application to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to make La Ofrenda. [8] After shooting the film however, both filmmakers realized they could not continue working together and ended their filmmaking partnership. Portillo was left to finish the film.
In 1992, she collaborated with the Chicano comedy troupe Culture Clash to produce the experimental video Columbus On Trial for the international commemoration of Columbus' voyage to the Americas. [8] Portillo humorously mixes political satire and experimental video techniques, putting the figure Columbus in a modern day courtroom and being charged for his atrocities against Native Americans. They collaborated again for the film Culture Clash: Mission Magic Mystery Tour in 2001. Alongside Culture Clash, she has also collaborated with the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
One of her most critically acclaimed films The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), perfectly encapsulates Portillo's experimental filmmaking style as well as her interest and connection to her Mexican roots. Covering the mystery surrounding the death of her favorite uncle Oscar Ruiz Almeida, Portillo explores the countless dramas and rumors shared by her family members surrounding her uncle's life and death. [8] Breaking away from conventional documentary styles, Portillo directly interacts with the film, questioning everything told by her family members and capturing her thought process as she uncovers more hidden secrets about her uncle and family. From scenes paired with clips of a TV screen playing Mexican telenovelas, to the recreations of family stories with toy props, The Devil Never Sleeps captures the uniqueness of Portillo's experimental filmmaking style. Covering a variety of topics such as family dynamics in Mexican culture, queerness, gender roles, and the distinction between private and public family affairs, Portillo's documentary is not just the story of her uncle Oscar's life and death, but also an analysis of power relations in Mexican society and culture. [8] Recently in 2020, The Devil Never Sleeps was included in the National Film Registry for preservation.
Fast-forwarding to her film Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), Portillo weaves the story of Selena's life with the significance around fans, the body, and patriarchy. The inspiration for the film came after watching Gregory Nava's film Selena (1997). [8] Disappointed with the film's focus on Selena's relationship with men in her life rather than her life as a singer, Portillo decided on creating a documentary focusing on Selena's fans and sordid details of her life. [8] She was able to gain Abraham Quintanilla's support for her documentary and gained access to Selena's music and Beta video copies of performances and footage unavailable to the general public under the condition that Portillo were to follow some of Abraham's film demands and eliminate certain parts he disliked. After abiding to most of the film edits, the following year, after viewing the final version shortly before the film's broadcast on public television's Point Of View, he demanded even more edits to which Portillo refused, agreeing to only one of his demands even after threatening to sue her for libel and even attempting to block the national broadcast. [8] Even with the film's struggles to get interviews, media, and its small film budget (around $130,000 dollars), Portillo's film won a Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1999.
Her film Señorita Extraviada (2001), was inspired after a conversation she had with filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña in Los Angeles in 1997. [6] Portillo states that she showed her an article stating the discovery of about thirty women found dead under similar circumstances in the city of Juarez, Mexico. Many young women were disappearing in mysterious circumstances and there were no leads on the issue. Concerned with the lack of coverage, Portillo decided on creating a documentary dedicated to these young women disappearing in Juarez, interviewing family members and exploring the many branches of power behind the lack of coverage surrounding these cases.
Since her first film in 1979, Portillo has produced and directed nearly a dozen others representing her creative filmmaking style as a visual artist. [6] Her work covers stories across the U.S Mexico border and highlights the complexity and diversity of Latin American experiences both inside and outside the U.S. Her work as a Latina filmmaker embraces stories centering women's experiences and analyses the effects of social, economic and political systems working for and against these identities. [8] Influenced by radical cinema, Portillo's work focuses on the combination of art and politics, expressing the uniqueness of hybrid identities like hers and the importance of denouncing injustice for Latino identities. [10]
Portillo and her films [11] have won numerous awards, mostly from regional film festivals. [12] Selected awards:
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was an American singer. Referred to as the "Queen of Tejano Music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century. In 2020, Billboard magazine put her in third place on their list of "Greatest Latino Artists of All Time", based on both Latin albums and Latin songs chart. Media outlets called her the "Tejano Madonna" for her clothing choices. She also ranks among the most influential Latin artists of all time and is credited for catapulting the Tejano genre into the mainstream market.
Barbara Jean Hammer was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Hammer is known for having created experimental films dealing with women's issues such as gender roles, lesbian relationships, coping with aging, and family life. She resided in New York City and Kerhonkson, New York, and taught each summer at the European Graduate School.
Susana Blaustein Muñoz is an Argentine film director. She directed four films since she started her career in 1980. She also produced one of those films, the documentary The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (1985), with co-director Lourdes Portillo, about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who looked for their disappeared children during the Dirty War. This film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Her last film was 1993's Mi casa, mi prisión.
Luis Miguel Valdez is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and playwriting, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.
Stephen Low is a Canadian film director and screenwriter who works extensively in the IMAX and IMAX 3D film formats. Based in Montreal, Quebec, over his 30-plus year career Low has directed numerous award-winning film documentaries including Challenger: An Industrial Romance (1980), Beavers (1988), Titanica (1991), Super Speedway (1997), Volcanoes of the Deep Sea (2003), Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag (2004), Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D (2010), Legends of Flight 3D (2010), Rescue 3D (2011), Rocky Mountain Express (2011) and Aircraft Carrier (2017).
Nuevo Cine Mexicano, also referred to as New Mexican Cinema is a Mexican film movement started in the early 1990s. Filmmakers, critics, and scholars consider Nuevo Cine Mexicano a "rebirth" of Mexican cinema because of the production of higher-quality films. This rebirth led to high international praise as well as box-office success, unseen since the golden age of Mexican cinema of the 1930s to 1960s. The quality of Mexican films suffered in the decades following the golden age due in part to Mexican audiences watching more overseas films, especially Hollywood productions. This resulted in the rise of infamous Mexican genres such as Luchador films, sexicomedias and ultimately the low-budget direct-to-video Mexploitation film.
Rea Tajiri is a Japanese American video artist, filmmaker, and screenwriter, known for her personal essay film History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige (1991).
Renee Tajima-Peña is an American filmmaker whose work focuses on immigrant communities, race, gender and social justice. Her directing and producing credits include the documentaries Who Killed Vincent Chin?, No Más Bebés, My America...or Honk if You Love Buddha, Calavera Highway, Skate Manzanar, Labor Women and the 5-part docuseries Asian Americans.
Debra Chasnoff was an American documentary filmmaker and activist whose films address progressive social justice issues. Her production company GroundSpark produces and distributes films, educational resources and campaigns on issues ranging from environmental concerns to affordable housing to preventing prejudice.
Tami Kashia Gold is a documentary filmmaker, visual artist and educator. She is also a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York in the Department of Film and Media Studies.
Rosa-Linda Fregoso is the Professor and former Chair of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Betzy Bromberg is an American director, editor, and experimental filmmaker. She is the Director of the Program in Film and Video at California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been shown at the Rotterdam, London, Edinburgh, Sundance and Vancouver Film Festivals as well as the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the San Francisco Cinematheque, the Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge), Anthology Film Archives, the National Film Theater (London), The Vootrum Centrum (Belgium) and the Centre Georges Pompidou (France).
Corpus: A Home Movie about Selena (1998) is a film by filmmaker Lourdes Portillo about Mexican American singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. It places emphasis on the transformation of Selena from a popular entertainer into a modern-day saint and role model. This documentary uses authentic home videos, news stories, footage from concerts and a debate between intellectuals to analyze the effect of Selena and Selena's murder at the hands of Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her fan club.
Alexis Krasilovsky is an American filmmaker, writer and professor. Krasilovsky's first film, End of the Art World documented artists including Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. Krasilovsky moved from New York to Los Angeles in the 1970s to pursue her passion for filmmaking, writing and directing films through her company, Rafael Film. She is the writer and director of the global documentary features, Women Behind the Camera and Let Them Eat Cake.
Rossana Lacayo de Herguedas known professionally as Rossana Lacayo is a Nicaraguan photographer, scriptwriter, and filmmaker. She is considered a pioneer of Nicaraguan cinema as stated by the Nicaraguan Cultural Institute. In 2003 she founded Gota Films (Nicaragua) an independent film company. She is a member of ANCI. Lacayo resides in Nicaragua with her family.
Emiko Omori is an American cinematographer and film director known for her documentary films. Her feature-length documentary Rabbit in the Moon won the Best Documentary Cinematography Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and an Emmy Award after it was broadcast on PBS that same year. One of the first camerawomen to work in news documentaries, Omori began her career at KQED in San Francisco in 1968.
Judith Dwan Hallet is an American documentary filmmaker.
Kimberlee Bassford is an independent documentary filmmaker from Honolulu, Hawai‘i. In 2005, she founded Making Waves Films LLC, which is a documentary production company. She advocates for gender equity and diversity in films and television. Most of her work focuses on Asian American women and young girls, and her films actively seek to correct underrepresentation of those groups in the media.
The Devil Never Sleeps is a 1994 Mexican-American documentary film directed by Lourdes Portillo and produced by Portillo and Michelle Valladares.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
