Preceded by short: Columbus on Trial (Lourdes Portillo, U.S., 1992): Portillo uses the film medium to bring the famed explorer to modern times and put him on trial in the year of the quintcentennial. A lot of "politically correct" ideas are brought before the bench, as well, in this humorous fantasy. (18 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist) ------------------(El Diablo Nunca Duerme). When San Francisco-based filmmaker Lourdes Portillo tells us that she will return to Mexico to find out how her uncle died, it seems that this film will be a personal exploration, a return to her childhood environment. She speaks in the visual language recognizable as personal or lyrical documentary....But the moment the family gossip begins to flow, Portillo becomes the star sleuth in a personal journey with the suspense dynamics of a classic murder mystery. As we begin thinking like detectives, all the members of her family become important...as potential murder suspects....Each interview begins to have innuendo and every statement seems to hold a clue....This strange wedding of murder mystery drama and personal documentary allows new twists for the narrative and its audience (who) begin to read Portillo's less traditional visual style more fluently....Basic mystery elements evolve into revelations that go deeper than 'who did it': the loyalty and suffocation of a family community, the destruction of a woman's self-esteem, government corruption, environmental tragedy-the loathsome and the beautiful in human nature.-Maya Allison