Lourdes Portillo, the distinguished Mexican filmmaker and social activist behind The Satan By no means Sleeps and the Oscar-nominated Las Madres – The Moms of the Plaza de Mayo, has died. She was 80.
Portillo died at her residence in San Francisco on Saturday, her good friend Soco Aguilar instructed The Hollywood Reporter. She was surrounded by her three sons and youthful sister. A trigger was not given.
Portillo labored as a author, director, producer, activist and journalist to create work that centered Latin American and Mexican tales. Las Madres – The Moms of the Plaza de Mayo, launched in 1985, highlighted the moms of Argentinian desaparecidos holding weekly protests in Buenos Aires’ Plaza de Mayo throughout Argentina’s army dictatorship. The documentary was nominated for an Oscar in 1986.
The Satan By no means Sleeps (1994) follows Portillo’s personal investigation of her uncle’s demise in Mexico. It was chosen for preservation in the US Nationwide Movie Registry in 2020.
In Could 2023, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences confirmed a gallery that includes Portillo as a part of its Restricted Collection and Spotlights. Along with Las Madres and The Satan By no means Sleeps, it additionally options La Ofrenda: The Days of the Useless and Señorita Extraviada.
“Lourdes Portillo was my beloved good friend whom I’ve identified because the early Nineties whereas learning and dealing in San Francisco,” Aguilar instructed THR. “Portillo was a unprecedented human, contributing not one however myriad marks throughout her lifetime via filmmaking and social activism. She was an unconventional, clever expertise — a ‘chingona’ whose life will proceed impacting others for generations.”
Aguilar cited a quote from Maya Angelou in tribute to his late good friend: “When you’re going to stay, go away a legacy. Make a mark on the world that may’t be erased.”
Portillo was born on Nov. 11, 1943, in Chihuahua, Mexico. She immigrated to Los Angeles along with her dad and mom and 4 siblings at age 13. Survivors embody her sister and three youngsters.