Bio

Mateo “Máte” Vargas is a Mexican filmmaker, photographer, writer and visual artist. Their multimedia work focuses on intersections and fractures of culture, borders, land, history, indigeneity and diaspora under the legacies of colonialism and capitalism. Their still and moving image work has screened and exhibited in festivals and galleries in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, South Africa, Russia, China, Vietnam, India, Japan, Argentina, Greece, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, England, Australia and the U.S. Their documentary on water pollution in the State of Mexico "Aguas Negras" (2021) has screened at the New York Latino Film Festival, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, Africa Human Rights Film Festival in Johannesburg, San Antonio CineFestival, Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Festival Fotogenia at UNAM and Suncine Environmental Film Festival on Canal Once public television in Mexico City. "Aguas Negras" details the legacy of the contamination of the Rio Cuautitlán on three different generations of the filmmaker’s family living in Cuautitlán Izcalli, a municipality identified as having the highest perception of insecurity in the State of Mexico. More