San Francisco filmmaker Lourdes Portillo is a respected director, but not exactly a household name in Hollywood circles. So just look at the company she now keeps: Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Redford, Elijah Wood, and several other fan-magazine delights.
The common thread: they are being honored with top awards at the 52nd annual San Francisco International Film Festival, opening Thursday for a two-week run. Portillo, 65, is receiving the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award, for “challenging the boundaries of the documentary form and remaining dedicated to broadening the scope of Latino and Chicano portrayals in film.”
She will receive the award April 27 at 7 p.m., at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas; the U.S. premiere of her latest film, “Al Más Allá” (“Beyond the Beyond”), will follow. An experimental documentary that uses fictional elements, the film about three Mexican fishermen traces the corruptive influence of stolen wealth with a theme similar to “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and “A Simple Plan.”
Portillo, a Bernal Heights resident for many years, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. She moved to Los Angeles at age 13, watched TV (especially the “Mickey Mouse Show”) to learn English and “as an introduction to American culture.” As a young immigrant, she avoided the “unwise rush to adapt too quickly,” careful not leaving her own culture behind.
Dyslexic, a poor student, an outsider, Portillo became aware of discrimination early in life, “keenly aware of people being cruel to each other.” Disregarding advice to be a “secretary or housewife,” she studied political science, searched for a professional career.
Married young, Portillo moved to San Francisco (“to get away from L.A.”), became involved with Latino poets, Chicano activists, started working as a camera assistant. She attended San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Art Institute to study film. With three children and limited resources, she persisted in learning “how to tell a story, how to put a film together, how to turn images into telling more than literal meanings; I was feeding a hunger for telling stories.”
In her “persistence of vision” that’s being honored: Latin America, the poor, the exploited, the oppressed. Her film debut, in 1979, was “Después del Terremoto,” focusing on the experiences of a Nicaraguan refugee in San Francisco. Next, as an unknown, just out of school, Portillo somehow raised $2,000 and got a free roundtrip ticket from Varig Airlines, flew to Buenos Aires and began a two-year process (with co-director Susana Blaustein Muñoz) that resulted in a film that eventually won some two dozen prizes internationally.
That film was “Las madres de la Plaza de Mayo,” about the courageous, defiant women who demonstrated on behalf of their children murdered or “disappeared” by the Argentine military regime. Nominated for an Academy Award, “Las madres” remains her best-known film.
She is also acclaimed for the more recent “The Devil Never Sleeps,” about the suspicious circumstances surrounding her uncle’s death. It’s a unique “documentary mystery,” a first-person real-life thriller, with Portillo as both the detective and filmmaker. In 2002, she made “Señorita Extraviada” about the disappearance of young women from assembly plants in U.S.-Mexican border towns — another of her signature films, which continue to engage audiences worldwide.
A many-splendored cinematic mix
The main attraction of this year’s film festival, of course, is the films — some 150 of them, from 55 countries, to be screened over the next two weeks, beginning on Thursday. And yet, there is lots more to the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival than clutching a big bag of popcorn in the dark.
It’s fun just to be part of the noisy, lively scene in and around the festival’s headquarters — the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Post Street — as audiences, officials, volunteers, guests mingle, a veritable United Nations of nationalities and languages. The screenings themselves are preceded by brief live presentation, and many are followed by a discussion with directors and actors.
During the day, crowds increase significantly with the addition of hundreds of students attending matinees under the San Francisco Film Society’s Youth Education Program, with admission to selected programs for only $2.50. Unlike many other years, this time the film festival does not coincide with Japantown’s Cherry Blossom Festival (concluding today), so while it’s always “heavy traffic” around there, parking will be just a bit easier.
An important annual event, the State of the Cinema address, will be held at 1 p.m., May 3, at the Kabuki. Photographer Mary Ellen Mark will deliver the address, accompanied by projections of images from her newest book, “Seen Behind the Scene: Forty Years of Photographing on Set.”
There are numerous parties, the two biggest to be held after the opening-night screening (April 23, Bruno’s, Mission and 20th Streets), and the closing-night film (May 7, The Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street).
Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Redford, and James Toback are the guests of honor at the annual Film Society Awards Night on April 30 in the Westin St. Francis Hotel, and Coppola will also appear in the Castro Theater on May 1 for an interview and discussion with some of his collaborators. As similar event with Redford is scheduled at the Castro on April 29; Toback’s turn is at the Kabuki on May 2. Detailed information about these and other events can be found online at www.sffs.org.
— Janos Gereben
IF YOU GO
San Francisco International Film Festival
Where: Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, Castro Theatre, Landmark’s Clay Theatre, Roxie Theater, and other locations
When: April 23 through May 7
Tickets: $10 to $12.50, higher for special events, including opening night ($70-$135)
Contact: (925) 866-9559; www.sffs.org
Festival features
Highlights of the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival:
‘Every Little Step’
U.S., 2008, 96 minutes
When: April 26, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Castro Theatre
What: A brilliant triple-layered account of the creation, original staging, and revival of “A Chorus Line,” providing fascinating and moving insight into the lives of young artists.
‘In the Loop’
U.K., 2009, 109 minutes
When: April 28, May 2, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Kabuki
What: An entirely fictional comedy, both hilarious and depressing, about U.S. and British government officials bungling their way into a disastrous war somewhere in the Middle East.
‘Artemisia’
Taiwan, 2008, 85 minutes
When: April 26 (9:15 p.m.), May 3 (12:45 p.m.), May 7 (8:30 p.m.)
Where: Kabuki
What: A quiet, affecting family drama, starring the great actress Pan Li Li as the loving mother who must come to terms with what her adult children hide from her.
‘(Untitled)’
U.S., 2009, 96 minutes
When: April 24 (9 p.m.), April 25 (8:45 p.m.), April 27 (4:15 p.m.)
Where: Kabuki
What: At first a hilarious, sophisticated comedy about experimental music and modern art, which later bogs down, and goes nowhere in particular.
‘Tulpan’
Kazakhstan, 2008, 100 minutes
When: April 27 (9:15 p.m.), April 30 (4:45 p.m.)
Where: Kabuki
What: Fans of the Mongolian film “The Story of the Weeping Camel” will love this saga of the Kazakh steppe, complete with the birth of a lamb.
‘Rudo and Cursi’
Mexico, 2008, 103 minutes
When: April 30 (6:15 p.m.), May 1 (4 p.m.)
Where: Kabuki
What: Four of Mexico’s top young filmmakers collaborated on this engaging tale of two brothers being pitched against each other on the soccer field at a climactic game that looks like the Super Bowl south of the border.
‘Easy Virtue’
U.K., 2008, 93 minutes
When: May 6 (6 p.m.), May 7 (3 p.m.)
Where: Kabuki
What: The director of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” serves up an update of Noel Coward’s play about the resistance to a new American family member (Jessica Biel) from a frosty Kristin Scott Thomas and disoriented Colin Firth.
‘Son of a Lion’
Pakistan/Australia, 2007, 92 minutes
When: April 25 (6 p.m.), April 29 (9:30 p.m.)
Where: Kabuki
What: In Pakistan, the story centers on the conflict between a young boy and his family for whom making firearms is the way of survival.
— Janos Gereben
