Mateo Vargas

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. Their work "Algún día caerá" (2022) focuses on the farthest extremes of the U.S.-Mexico border from the Rio Bravo to the Pacific Ocean.

The work screened as part of a public video art installation during documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany and as part of an exhibition at ABM Confecciones Space in Madrid, Spain. "Algún día caerá" has also screened at Festival Internacional de Cine de Los Cabos, Saigon Experimental Film Festival, Beijing International Short Film Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival, San Antonio CineFestival and Transcinema Festival Internacional de Cine in Lima, Peru.

The film won the Adriana and Dolores Ehlers award for Best Short Documentary at Festival Internacional de Cine Silente Mexico in Puebla. Their latest work Cruces (2024) centers on a night of migratory beach crossings in Tijuana. It had its Latin American premiere at Al Este Festival Internacional de Cine in Lima, Peru.