The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has announced the opening of a gallery devoted to influential Mexican-American filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, highlighting the life and career of the remarkable documentarian, visual artist, journalist, and activist.
Born in Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, Portillo’s documentaries blend experimental and traditional modes of storytelling to focus on themes of identity and social justice in the US and Latin America. Since her first film, After the Earthquake / Después del terremoto (1979), she has produced and directed over a dozen works that reveal her signature hybrid style.
Portillo’s seventeen completed films include the Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (co-directed with Susana Blaustein Muñoz, 1986), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Columbus on Trial (1992), The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), Señorita Extraviada (2001), My McQueen (2004), Al Más Allá (2008), and her new short film animated film State of Grace (2020). In 2017 she was recipient of the IDA Career Achievement Award.
Portillo’s exhibit, curated by Sophia Serrano, will be housed in the Significant Movies and Moviemakers gallery, and it will be on view between February 19, 2023 and March 17, 2024, focusing on some her key projects.
