Lourdes Portillo

State of Grace is a short (4-minute) film documenting an artistic rendition of a transformative dream. It is based on filmmaker Lourdes Portillo’s experience confronting illness. After being diagnosed with cancer, Portillo had a vivid dream in which her family members and ancestors who have died surround her in a circle. The film involves a moment when time stands still and one is filled with profound feelings that many think of as fleeting. Gratitude and hope, for example, are rarely discussed in relationship to illness. In the moment of sorrow, pain, and illumination, the film culminates in a state of grace.

Portillo’s most recent work uses a range of narrative elements to explore the realities of shifting global wealth and drug trafficking along the Mayan coastline of Mexico. Real conversations with tourist guides, merchants, and American expats about the corruption and violence caused by drug trafficking are interspersed with stylized narrative scenes that reveal documentary filmmakers’ heroic preoccupations.

This gripping documentary investigates the disappearance of young women from assembly plants that line the Mexican-American border.

Five Chicana cultural critics gather over a meal to discuss and debate the life, death, and legacy of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez.

Five Chicana cultural critics gather over a meal to discuss and debate the life, death, and legacy of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez.

CORPUS explores the mass adulation and explosive posthumous recognition of Selena Quintanilla, the Tejano rock singer murdered by the president of her fan club in 1995. Pushing beyond the mainstream media's fascination with her violent death, Portillo interviews Selena's family and friends as well as the devoted fans that pilgrimage to Selena's grave in Corpus Christi, Texas, to pay homage to the slain star. Moving and provocative, this humble investigative portrait explores Selena's cultural significance as a pop icon and shines a light on the hopes, fantasies, fears, and realities of young Latinas today.

Wayne Corbitt recites a poem describing the pain he endures living with AIDS.

The Devil Never Sleeps is a “whodunit” documentary about family secrets. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo received a phone call informing her of the mysterious death of her wealthy Mexican uncle Oscar. Officially ruled a suicide, Portillo’s relatives claimed murder, offering several possible suspects including a business partner, a ranch hand, and Oscar’s young widow who stood to inherit everything. Traveling to Mexico, Portillo attempts to learn the truth about her powerful uncle. Using interviews, old snapshots and home movies, she finds a complicated web of family secrets, intrigue, rumor and betrayal that makes her enigmatic uncle’s murder seem ever more likely, yet ever more obscure. As the Mexican saying goes, “When evil is lurking, the devil never sleeps.”

A discussion about issues of race & ethnicity in three Latin American countries: Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Inspired by the controversy surrounding the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America, Portillo has fashioned a fanciful version of a courtroom were Columbus to return from his grave to stand trial. Cross-examined by the Latino comedy group, Culture Clash, Columbus is charged with atrocities against the Native peoples of the New World, including the rape and violent treatment of women. Satire and parody rule in this dynamic document about American history and colonization.

A documentary exploring the varying cultural practices of the Day of the Dead in both Mexico and Chicano/a communities in the United States.

1985 Argentine documentary film directed by Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

1985 Argentine documentary film directed by Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

1985 Argentine documentary film directed by Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

This dramatic story follows a young Nicaraguan immigrant, Irene, as she faces the challenges of life in the U.S. and re-evaluates her relationships with her boyfriend and family. "After the Earthquake" explores the immigrant experience, particularly the cultural, political and economic differences between life in North and Latin America.

This dramatic story follows a young Nicaraguan immigrant, Irene, as she faces the challenges of life in the U.S. and re-evaluates her relationships with her boyfriend and family. "After the Earthquake" explores the immigrant experience, particularly the cultural, political and economic differences between life in North and Latin America.