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Lourdes Portillo
The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Films
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: Después del Terremoto, the Oscar-nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead,The Devil Never Sleeps, and Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena.
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.).
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.
Rosa Linda Fregoso is the author of The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. She is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis.
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Tracking the Politics of Love
- Part One: The Woman Behind the Camera
- Introduction
- 1. Interview with Lourdes Portillo (1998): Rosa Linda Fregoso
- 2. Interview with Lourdes Portillo (1994): Rosa Linda Fregoso
- 3. Interview with Lourdes Portillo (1990): Kathleen Newman and B. Ruby Rich
- Part Two: Critical Perspectives
- Introduction
- 4. Devils and Ghosts, Mothers and Immigrants: A Critical Retrospective of the Works of Lourdes Portillo: Rosa Linda Fregoso
- 5. Ironic Framings: A Queer Reading of the Family (Melo)drama in Lourdes Portillo's The Devil Never Sleeps/El diablo nunca duerme: Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano
- 6. Performances of The Devil Never Sleeps/El diablo nunca duerme: Sylvie Thouard
- 7. Who is the Devil, and How or Why Does He or She Sleep? Viewing a Chicana Film in Mexico: Norma Iglesias Prieto
- 8. Pinning Down the Bad-Luck Butterfly: Photography and Identity in the Films of Lourdes Portillo: Barbara McBane
- Part Three: Production Materials
- Introduction
- 9. Script notes for Después del terremoto
- 10. Cast List for Después del terremoto
- 11. Funding application for Después del terremoto
- 12. Letter for Oscar Nomination of Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
- 13. Transcript for English and Spanish narration of La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead
- 14. Transcript for interviews in La Ofrenda
- 15. Screenplay for Columbus on Trial
- 16. Floor plans for set design of Columbus on Trial
- 17. Storyboard for Columbus on Trial
- Appendix: ¿Quién es el diablo, cómo y por qué duerme? La lectura de una película chicana en Mexico: Norma Iglesias Prieto
- Filmography
- Awards and Honors
- Notes
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
