LOURDES PORTILLO: SELENA FILMS

Co-presented by Aurora Picture Show and the Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2020

Online program: Sunday-Saturday, November 15-21, 2020

Tickets ($10/Free for Aurora members) HERE

Current Aurora members should contact us for discount code.

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Los Angeles, Lourdes Portillo has been making films about Latin American identity and social justice issues for nearly forty years. As part of the Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2020, Aurora and HCAS co-present two video documentaries made in the late-1990s in which Portillo explores the life and impact of beloved Tejano singer and pop icon, Selena. Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1998, 47 minutes) focuses on interviews with the singer’s family, friends, and devoted fans that pilgrimage to her grave in Corpus Christi to pay homage to the slain star. A Conversation with Academics About Selena (1999, 59 minutes) examines the life and mythology of Selena through an academic lens, with feminist scholars Sandra Cisneros, Ruby Rich, Cherrie Moraga, Yvonne, Yarbro-Bejarano and Rosa-Linda Fregoso engaging in a lively cultural analysis of Selena. This program, including both films and a discussion with filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, is available for one week on the festival's virtual platform, Nov. 15-21. (Once you begin the program, you'll have 72 hours to finish watching.)