page_title: Lourdes Portillo
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Lourdes Portillo / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Español: Fotografia: Iñigo Royo
context_page_description: Lourdes Portillo was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Los Angeles.
context_section_description: She is a writer, director, and producer of films from television documentary to satirical video-film collage. Portillo got her first filmmaking experience at the age of twenty-one when a friend in Hollywood asked her to help out on a documentary. Her formal training began several years later. She has thus been making award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues both as a director and screenwriter for about forty years. Since her first film in 1979, After the Earthquake/ Despues del Terremoto, she has produced over 12 works that demonstrate her work as not only a director, but also an activist, artist, and journalist. While the majority of her work is in the documentary film genre, she has also created video installations and screen writings. Her films have been widely studied and analyzed, particularly by scholars in the field of Chicano studies.
  She is a member of the production team of Xochitl Productions, which seeks to "inform the general population through varied endeavors that challenge dominant narratives."
caption: Lourdes Portillo receiving an award in Spain in 2015.
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