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Return to: Interview with Lourdes Portillo

Lourdes Portillo

Filmography / Awards / Exhibitions / Screenings


  • Click here to visit the Lourdes Portillo official web site.

Filmography (partial list)

1998 - Producer/Director/Writer: Corpus (in-progress documentary about the late Tex-Mex singer Selena Quintanilla). Funded by a Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Film and Video Fellowship and other donors.

1997 - Producer/Director: Sometimes My Feet Go Numb (2:23 min., performance video).

1997 Multi-Media Director: 13 Days, a nationally toured play by the San Francisco Mime Troupe

1994 Producer/Director: The Devil Never Sleeps/EI Diablo Nunca Duerme (82 min., documentary). Funded by the Independent Television Service and the National Latino CommunicationsCenter.

1993 Producer/Director/Writer: Mirrors of the Heart (60 min., documentary). Produced by WGBH in Boston for PBS series, "Americas." Broadcast nationally in 1993.

1992 Producer/Director: Columbus On Trial (18 min., performance video). Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Broadcast nationally in 1992.

1989 Producer/Director: Vida (short narrative film). Produced by John Hoffman.

1988 Director/Co-Producer/Writer: La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (60 min., documentary). Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

1986 Director/Co-Producer/Writer: Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (60 min., documentary). Funded by a variety of foundations and other grantmakers.

1979 Director/Co-Producer: After the Earthquake/Despues del Terremoto (short narrative film). Funded by the American Film Institute.

Prizes and Honors (partial list)

Retrospective of Films of Lourdes Portillo, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., October 12, 1998

Retrospective of Films of Lourdes Portillo; Este Lugar, the First Annual Border Film Festival, Mesilla, New Mexico, 1995

The Devil Never Sleeps; International Documentary Association, one of five Best Documentary Awards, Los Angeles, 1996

The Devil Never Sleeps/EI Diablo Nunca Duerme; Golden Gate Award; San Francisco International Film Festival, 1995

Mirrors of the Heart; Silver Hugo, Chicago Film Festival, 1994

Mirrors of the Heart; Silver Apple, National Educational Film and Video Festival, Oakland, 1994

Vida; CINE Golden Eagle

Vida; Special Mention, San Antonio CineFestival San Antonio, 1990

La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead; Honors, International Documentary Association, Los Angeles, 1989

La Ofrenda; Best Feature Documentary; Athens Film Festival, Athens, Ohio, 1989

Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo; Academy Award Nomination, Best Documentary, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1986

Las Madres; Special Jury Prize, Documentary, United States Film Festival, Salt Lake City, 1986

Las Madres; Grand Prix Ex-Aquo, Certamen Internacional de Cine Documental y Corto

Metrage, Bilbao, Spain, 1986

Las Madres; Coral Prize, Feature Documentary, Festival Internacional de Cine Latinoamericano, Havana, Cuba, 1986

Las Madres; Second Place, Documentary, Sydney Film Festival, Australia, 1986

Las Madres; Prix du Public and Prix du Presse, Women's Film Festival Creteil, France

After the Earthquake/Despues del Terremoto; Diploma of Honor, Cracow Shorts Film Festival, Crackow, Poland, 1979

Exhibitions (partial list)

The Devil Never Sleeps; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "Desire, Disaster, Document," 1995

Columbus on Trial; Whitney Museum Biennial New York, 1993

Columbus on Trial; "Will Power": A video series confronting displacement experienced by non-mainstream cultures, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 1992

Vida; "Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, An Interpretive Exhibition of the Chicano ArtMovement, 1965-1985," UCLA Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1990

La Ofrenda; "Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation," UCLA Wight Gallery, 1990

La Ofrenda; "Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries, Mexico on Film," Metropolitan Art Museum, New York, 1990

After the Earthquake; "Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985," San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art, 1991

After the Earthquake; "In Aztlan: The Films of the Chicano Movement, 1969-1979," New American Film and Video Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1991

Recent Festival Screenings (partial list)

The Devil Never Sleeps

  • Toronto Film Festival, 1995
  • Sundance Film Festival, 1995
  • New Directors/New Films, The Film Society of Lincoln Center and New York Museum of Modem Art, New York, 1995
  • San Francisco International Film Festival, 1995
  • Sydney Film Festival Australia, 1995
  • Melbourne Film Festival, Australia, 1995
  • Wellington Film Festival, New Zealand, 1995
  • Festival de Filmes de Femmes, Geteil, Paris, France, 1995
  • Muestra de Cine Mexicano en Guadalajara, Mexico, 1995
  • Sao Paulo International Film Festival Brazil, 1996
  • 7th Latin American Film Festival, London, England, 1996

Sometimes My Feet Go Numb

  • Sundance Film Festival, 1997
  • USA film Festival, Dallas, 1997
  • Out on the Screen, Los Angeles, 1996
  • Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, 1996
  • Reeling '96: Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival, 1996
  • Mix '96: New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival, New York, Brazil and Mexico, 1996

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Published in In Motion Magazine December 6, 1998.