Lourdes Portillo
1. Lourdes Portillo is a filmmaker, producer and writer. She was born in Mexico, and has directed and produced a number of films. She has also written one film called “El Diablo Nunca Duerme�. Lourdes Portillo was first introduced to film making when a friend of hers asked for her help in making a movie. She was then 21. One of her most famous films that she directed has “Senorita Extravaida, Missing Young Woman�. This film is about an incident in Juárez, Mexico where hundreds of young women where raped and killed.
For a more on Lourdes Portillo visit http://www.lourdesportillo.com/index.html
For more on “Señorita Extravaida, Missing Young Woman�, visit http://www.lourdesportillo.com/senoritaextraviada/index.html#description
2. List of her works from the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0692409/):
a. Señorita Extravaida (2001)- This film is a documentary about and incident in Juárez, Mexico where hundreds of young women were and are still being raped and killed. Lourdes Portillo directed and produced this film.
b. Corpus (1999)- A home movie about Selena
c. Sometimes My Feet Go Numb (1996)- a short film interpretation of a poem by Wayne Corbitt. It discusses physical and psychological effects of AIDS drugs.
d. Diablo Nunca Duerme, El (1994)- A documentary about the murder of Portillo’s uncle. Lourdes Portillo directed, produced, and wrote this film.
e. La Ofrenda (1989)- A documentary about the Day of the Dead
f. Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (1985)- Lourdes Portillo directed and produced this film
g. Después del terremoto (1979)
3. I have not been able to see any of her work. Here is a link to her homepage where you can read about her and about her work: http://www.lourdesportillo.com/index.html
4. I found Lourdes Portillo by going to the Women Make Movies website (http://www.wmm.com/). There is a long list of women filmmakers and I chose her because I am very interested in Central and South American culture.
5. It was easy for me to find this filmmaker only because I knew where to look. Before this class I didn’t know of the organization Women Make Movies and I would of never of thought to look on the web site. If I didn’t know of these links, then I think that it would have been extremely difficult to find information on colored independent women filmmakers.