Señorita extraviada

Missing Young Woman

Lourdes Portillo

Mexico, United States of America

2001

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Synopsis

Señorita extraviada / Missing Young Woman unfolds like the unsolved mystery that it examines—the kidnapping, rape and murder of over 350 young women in Juárez, Mexico. Visually poetic, yet unflinching in its gaze, this haunting documentary unravels the layers of complicity that have allowed these brutal murders to continue just south of the US-Mexican border. Relying on what Portillo comes to see as the most reliable of sources —the testimonies of the families of the victims— Señorita Extraviada documents a two-year search for the truth in the underbelly of the new global economy. The result is a shocking and brutal portrait of Ciudad Juárez, “The City of the Future.”

Missing Young Woman screening by courtesy of its director Lourdes Portillo.

Festivals

-Ariel Award, Best Mexican Documentary, Mexican Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences, 2003
-Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival, 2003
-Nestor Alemendros Prize, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, 2002
-Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award, International Documentary Association, Los Angeles, 2002
-Gold Gandhi Award, Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival, 2003

Director biography

Lourdes Portillo

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Los Angeles, Lourdes Portillo has been making award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues for nearly thirty years. Since her first film, After the Earthquake/Despues del Terremoto (1979), she has produced and directed over a dozen works that reveal her signature hybrid style as a visual artist, investigative journalist, and activist.

Portillo’s seventeen completed films include the Academy Award® and Emmy® Award nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Columbus on Trial (1992), The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), Senorita Extravida 2001), My McQueen (2004), Al Más Allá (2008), and her new short film animated film State of Grace (2020).

Images gallery

Credits

Language

Spanish - Subtitles in spanish

Music

Todd Boekelheide

Director

Lourdes Portillo

Screenplay

Sharon Wood, Julie Mackaman, Lourdes Portillo, Olivia Crawford

Cinematography

Kyle Kibbe

Editing

Vivien Hillgrove

Sound

Jose Araujo

Production

Lourdes Portillo, Gemma Cubero del Barrio

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