USA,
1998, 49 min
Shown in 1999
CREDITS
- dir
-
Lourdes Portillo
- scr
-
Lourdes Portillo
- cam
-
Emiko Omori
- editor
-
Vivien Hillgrove
- source
-
Xochitl Films, 981 Esmeralda Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. FAX: 415-642-1609
- gga award
-
Golden Spire, Bay Area Film & Video: Documentary
-
COMMENTS
Shown with Beca de Gilas: Rebeca’s Story. Lourdes Portillo in person.
OTHER
This latest work by award-winning Chicana filmmaker Lourdes Portillo (The Devil Never Sleeps, Columbus on Trial) is a dynamic, skillfully crafted documentary about Tejana singing star Selena Quintanilla Pérez, who, in 1995, was fatally shot in a Corpus Christi motel by Yolanda Saldívar, a business associate. Portillo’s compelling close-up look at the life and career of the slain singer traces Selena’s transformation from a popular Tejana singer into a Mexican American icon. Inspired by Selena’s short life and tragic death, Portillo traveled to the Texas-Mexico border to interview the singer’s friends and family as well as fans—especially Mexican American teenage girls—who consider her a major influence in their lives as a symbol of hope and cultural pride. Through candid interviews and archival footage of Selena’s performances and news coverage about the murder, the documentary presents a sharp and moving portrait of a talented, ambitious yet accessible star that put Tejano music on the national map of popular culture.
—Julia Segrove-Jauriqui
FACTOID #10
In 1960, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which has inspired many women to jump into fountains, was pulled from the San Francisco International Film Festival’s program by the distributor and replaced with Roberto Rossellini’s Night over Rome.
