Vida  
As the AIDS crisis was becoming more severe in Black and Latinx communities, the independent production company AIDSFilms in New York sought to hire content creators from these specific populations to more meaningfully target young city dwellers and educate them about contemporary safe sex practices. Using the visual language of Latin American telenovelas, Lourdes Portillo made Vida on commission for AIDSFilms, one of just six educational films made between 1987 and 1993 meant to raise awareness about the virus.  

La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead  
An evocative and deeply personal account of the annual Día de los Muertos holiday and its distinct traditions unfolds in both filmmaker Portillo’s native Mexico and within various Chicano neighborhoods in the United States. This luminous film that centers a celebration and remembrance of the dead also subliminally confronts the era in which it was made, when AIDS deaths within international gay communities were reaching tragic record highs.