DVD
The devil never sleeps = El diablo nunca duerme
Languages
In Spanish, with English subtitles.
Publication Information
New York, NY : Women Make Movies, [2021]
Physical Description
1 videodisc (82 minutes) : sound, color with black and white sequences ; 4 3/4 in.
Audience
Not rated.
Series
Summary
Academy Award nominated filmmaker Lourdes Portillo mines the complicated intersections of analysis and autobiography, evidence and hypothesis, even melodrama and police procedure in this documentary. Early one Sunday morning, the filmmaker receives a phone call informing her that her beloved Uncle Oscar Ruiz Almeida has been found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in Chihuahua, Mexico. His widow declares his death a suicide. Most of his family, however, cry murder and point to a number of suspects that include the widow herself. Portillo returns to the land of her birth to investigate her uncle's identity and death. Finding clues in old tales of betrayal, lust, and supernatural visitation, Portillo blends traditional and experimental techniques to capture the nuances of Mexican social and family order. Poetic and tragic, humorous and mythic, this film crosses the borders of personal values, cultural mores, and the discipline of filmmaking in a fascinating look at family mysteries.
Notes
Originally produced as a documentary in 1994. Container and disc surface erroneously reads 1996.
Subjects
- Suicide.
- Suicide victims > Family relationships.
- Bereavement > Psychological aspects.
- Mexican American families.
- Chihuahua (Chihuahua, Mexico) > Social life and customs > 20th century.
- Ruiz Almeida, Oscar.
- Ruiz Almeida, Oscar > Death and burial.
- Portillo, Lourdes > Homes and haunts-Mexico-Chihuahua (Chihuahua)