Human Rights Watch International Film Festival - New York 2002

Missing Young Woman
Directed by Lourdes Portillo
Produced in Mexico/US, 2001
Running Time: 75m
Format: video
Genre: Documentary
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Web site: www.lourdesportillo.com

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, has a secret: since 1994 over 200 young women have disappeared from its streets, most of them being discovered weeks or months later, murdered and abused, their bodies dumped in a desert that provides few clues. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo (winner of the 2002 HRWIFF Nestor Almendros Award) investigates why this is happening, and who, or what, is to blame: an Egyptian national, a gang called "the rebels," bus drivers, narco-traffickers, the police, the military, U.S. nationals, or the multinational factories where the women worked? As Portillo reveals a legacy of disinformation, incompetence, and corruption with a forceful, slowly building anger, Ciudad Juarez's dirty secret spirals into a truly horrific nightmare. Everyone, and everything, is suspect. Yet while rumors swirl and officials dally, the women continue to disappear: in 18 months of filming, Portillo states, over 50 women were killed. Powerful, alarming, and frequently heartbreaking, this is her plea, and psalm, for them. (Sundance Film Festival, 2002) An Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) Co-Presentation. A P.O.V. broadcast premiere on PBS, Tuesday, August 20, 2002 at 10:00 pm (check local listings).

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P.O.V. is celebrating 15 years in 2002. Since 1988 P.O.V. has worked to bring the best of independent point-of-view documentaries to a national audience. The first series on television to feature the work of America's most innovative documentary filmmakers, P.O.V. has gone on to pioneer the art of presentation and outreach using independent media to build new communities in conversation about today's most pressing social issues.

Established in 1972 to address the under-representation and misrepresentation of women in the media, Women Make Movies is dedicated to the production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of films and videos made by and about women. This January, Women Make Movies launched its 30th anniversary year at the Sundance Film Festival with a record breaking ten films, including the Special Jury Prize winner, Lourdes Portillo’s Senorita Extraviada. This film, along with other highly acclaimed films from the WMM collection, will be featured at exhibitions around the globe as part of our 30th Anniversary celebration. Highlights include exhibitions at some of the leading contemporary arts centers in Asia, South America and Europe, The Independent Vision Award from the “Halfway to Hollywood” Festival in Kansas City and collaborations with a diverse group of NYC based media arts organizations. From Jane Campion, Sally Potter and Julie Dash to Su Friedrich, Trinh T. Minh-ha an Kim Longionotto to as yet undiscovered filmmakers of the future, Women Make Movies salutes the perseverance, talent and accomplishments of women video and filmmakers around the globe.