Lourdes Portillo, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, dies aged 80
Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, has died at the age of 80.The Mexican director, producer and writer, perhaps best known for the 1986 film The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, passed away in her San Francisco home.Portillo was known for her bold filmmaking style that confronted issues around race, sexuality and social justice, and often featured stories and experiences of Latin American, Mexican and Chicano culture.Born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1943, she moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, where she became part of a Marxist filmmaking collective, Cine Manifest, in the ‘70s, eventually working on her first film, After the Earthquake, in 1979.In addition to her extensive work in documentary features, Portillo went on to gain a reputation in the worlds of video installation and screenwriting, and also worked in investigative journalism and visual art.She co-directed The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo with Susana Blaustein Muñoz.