Lourdes Portillo, an Oscar-nominated Mexican-born documentary filmmaker whose work explored Latin American social issues, died on Saturday at her home in San Francisco. Her death was confirmed by her friend Soco Aguilar. One of Ms. Portillo’s best-known works is her 1994 documentary “The Devil Never Sleeps,” a murder-mystery in which she investigates the strange death of her multimillionaire uncle, whose widow claimed he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In 2020, the Library of Congress selected the film for the National Film Registry. The documentary had the tenor of a telenovela and presented open questions about Mr. Ruiz Almeida’s mysterious life and death and the people who could have had a motive for the murder.

---

Persons: Lourdes Portillo, Oscar, Soco Aguilar, Portillo’s, ”, Oscar Ruiz Almeida, ” Stephen Holden, Ruiz Almeida’s Organizations: of Congress, National Film Registry, Times Locations: Mexican, San Francisco, United States