Lourdes Portillo, Oscar-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 80

Lourdes Portillo, an Oscar-nominated Mexican-born documentary filmmaker whose work explored Latin American social issues, passed away on Saturday at her home in San Francisco. She was 80.

Her friend Soco Aguilar confirmed her death. No cause was given.

One of Ms. Portillo’s most famous works is the 1994 documentary “The Devil Never Sleeps,” a murder-mystery where she investigates the strange death of her multimillionaire uncle. In 2020, the Library of Congress selected the film for the National Film Registry.

“Using vintage snapshots, old home movies, and interviews, the film builds a biographical portrait of Oscar Ruiz Almeida, a Mexican rancher who amassed a fortune exporting vegetables to the United States and became a powerful politician and businessman,” wrote Stephen Holden, a Times movie critic, in a 1995 review of the film.

The documentary had the feel of a telenovela and raised questions about Mr. Ruiz Almeida’s mysterious life and death.

“The more Oscar is discussed, the more enigmatic he seems,” wrote Mr. Holden.

Ms. Portillo developed the film’s storyline based on information her mother shared over the phone while Ms. Portillo was living in New York.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles honored Ms. Portillo and other filmmakers by screening the movie last year.

Her breakthrough work was the 1985 Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentary “The Mothers of The Plaza of Mayo,” which followed a group of mothers in Argentina seeking answers to the disappearance of their sons.

Lourdes Portillo was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, on Nov. 11, 1943, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 13 with her family.

She received numerous awards and nominations for her 18 films produced over four decades.

She was known for her innovative and boundary-pushing style.

“Portillo’s works defy categorization, blending docufiction, experimental video, and telenovela melodrama,” stated the Academy Museum.

Before her passing, Ms. Portillo was working on a film titled “Looking At Ourselves,” which received a grant from the Sundance Institute.

Ms. Portillo is survived by her three sons, Carlos, Karim, and Antonio Scarlata, along with four siblings and five grandchildren.

Her final work, “State of Grace,” was released in 2020, an animated short film reflecting a dream where Ms. Portillo faces her desperation after a diagnosis of illness.

“The only thing that enabled me to gather my strength was a vivid dream,” Ms. Portillo shared on her website. “In the dream, I saw my family and ancestors around me, chanting for my healing, filling me with tenderness for all who had loved me.”

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