Lourdes Portillo

Born in Mexico, raised in the United States, and proud of her Chicano origins, Lourdes Portillo has dedicated a large part of her filmmaking career to researching into and analysing Latin identity and culture. She took her first steps in the documentary world at a very young age and, in 1979, having completed her studies in San Francisco, directed her first film, Después del terremoto (After the Earthquake) about the life of a young Nicaraguan immigrant girl in California.

In 1986 she landed an Oscar nomination and more than 25 international wards for Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, shot over three years in Argentina with Susana Muñoz. She later directed, among many others, La ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), about the All Saints’ Day celebrations in Mexican and Chicana communities; EI diablo nunca duerme (The Devil Never Sleeps, 1994), where she returns to her native country to investigate her uncle’s death; Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), a look at the figure of the popular Texan singer; Señorita extraviada (Missing Young Woman 2001), on the reality of the hundreds of women murdered in Ciudad Juárez; and Al más allá (2008), an experimental documentary on drug trafficking on the Mayan coast.