Films with: Portillo, Lourdes

Corpus a home movie for Selena /

Corpus focuses on Selena's fans on both sides of the border, who saw her as a symbol of hope and cultural pride. Includes interviews with personal friends, family, and fans, intercut with archival footage of performances and appearances at awards ceremonies, and news coverage about her murder and the memorial service in Corpus Christi.

DVD 4938

Devil never sleeps El diablo nunca duerme /

Lourdes Portillo examines her uncle Oscar Ruiz's life and events surrounding his death through interviews with his relatives and friends.

DVD 6998

Films of Lourdes Portillo a personal journey /

Independent filmmaker Lourdes Portillo will discuss the personal journey she's taken through her work, which includes the 1981 Oscar-nominated documentary, Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Portillo, who says her mission is "channeling the hopes and dreams of people," is a Mexican-born, Chicana-identified artist whose films examine Latino identity. Her work, which shows a deep political commitment to human rights and social justice, has been lauded across the film and television world, from Sundance to the Emmy Awards.

DVD 7642

Madres the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo /

This Academy award-nominated documentary about the Argentinian mothers' movement to demand to know the fate of 30,000 "disappeared" sons and daughters remains as extraordinarily powerful as when it was first released. As well as giving an understanding of Argentinian history in the '70s and '80s, LAS MADRES shows the empowerment of women in a society where women are expected to be silent. LAS MADRES provides a banner of hope in the international struggle for human rights.

DVD 12632

My McQueen

The legacy of actor Steve McQueen in San Francisco after "Bullitt", McQueen's classic 1968 detective film, with producer/director Lourdes Portillo and cinematographer Kyle Kibbe for the The Center for New Documentary, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley. Includes a compilation of automobile chase scenes from Hollywood films.

DVD 6999

Ofrenda the Days of the Dead /

Documents Mexican and Mexican American observances of Los Días de Muertos. Emphasizes the enduring meaningfulness of practices and beliefs regarding death which appear pre-Columbian in origin.

DVD 8191

Señorita extraviada

This film "unfolds like the unsolved mystery that it examines -- the kidnapping, rape and murder of over 350 young women in Juárez, Mexico ... [T]he film unravels the layers of complicity that have allowed these brutal murders to continue. Relying on what filmmaker Lourdes Portillo comes to see as the most reliable of sources -- the testimonies of the families of the victims -- this film documents a two-year search for the truth in the underbelly of the new global economy"--Container.

DVD 12656