Lourdes Portillo

<p>Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo sees her mission as channeling the hopes and dreams of a people. Clearly political commitment has inspired her choice of subjects. With themes ranging from state repression to AIDS Portillo's films include: <i>Después del Terremoto</i> the Oscar-nominated <i>Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo</i><i>La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead</i><i>The Devil Never Sleeps</i> and <i>Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena.</i></p> <p>The first study of Portillo and her films this collection is collaborative and multifaceted in approach emphasizing aspects of authorial creativity audience reception and production processes typically hidden from view. Rosa Linda Fregoso the volume editor has organized the book into three parts: interviews (by Fregoso and Kathleen Newman and B. Ruby Rich); critical perspectives (essays by Fregoso Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano Sylvie Thouard Norma Iglesias and Barbara McBane); and production materials (screenplays script notes storyboards etc.).</p> <p>This innovative collection provides inside information on the challenges of making independent films. By describing the production constraints Portillo has surmounted Fregoso deepens our appreciation of this gifted filmmaker's life her struggles and the evolution of her art.</p>