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Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo Dead At 80
Filmmaker, writer, and social activist Lourdes Portillo, best known for her documentary “Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza De Mayo,” which was nominated for an Oscar, passed away this week at the age of 80.
Portillo was born on November 11, 1943, in Chihuahua, Mexico. At the age of thirteen, Lourdes immigrated with her parents to Los Angeles. By the time she turned twenty, Lourdes had secured a job at an educational film company in Los Angeles, where she first embarked on her career as a filmmaker.
In the early 1970s, Portillo moved to San Francisco. Lourdes began an apprenticeship with the National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians in San Francisco. She also graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985.
After graduating, Lourdes began her career in filmmaking by establishing her own independent film company, “Xochitl Productions.” While advancing her career, Portillo also stayed connected to the local film community.
“I live in San Francisco, so there’s a certain activism that goes on here. And in those years – in the ‘70s – there were a lot of immigrants from Latin America, from Argentina, from Brazil, from Mexico, and there was a lot of injustice being perpetrated on them. And I, of course, tried to help in any way that I could.
“So, it all began in that form – a form of protest. And being in San Francisco, you’re kind of protected by the population here, at that time. And so [it] enabled me to go forward. And, also, I had the sensibility that I wanted to help people and I wanted to do it in a very artistic way, in a way that was really easier to understand and more sympathetic visually, shall I say.”
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Portillo’s debut film, titled “Después del Terremoto,” was released in 1979. The film focused on the experience of a Nicaraguan refugee from the 1972 Managua earthquake in San Francisco.
Her subsequent film, “The Mother of Plaza de Mayo,” was released in 1986. It documents the actions of a group of Argentine women who gather weekly to commemorate their children, who were murdered by the military regime. The film received an Oscar nomination, along with numerous other awards.
Throughout her career, Lourdes released more than sixteen films from 1979 to 2020.
Rest in peace!
