Mateo “Máte” Vargas is a non-binary Mexican filmmaker, photographer, writer and visual artist based in Mexico City. Their multimedia work focuses on the intersections and fractures of culture, identity, borders, land, history and diaspora under the legacies of colonialism and late-stage capitalism. Their still and moving image work has screened and exhibited in festivals and galleries in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, 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, 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. Their newest work “Algún día caerá” (2022) focuses on the farthest extremes of the U.S.-Mexico border. It has screened as a video art installation at documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany and ABM Confecciones Space in Madrid, Spain. The film has also screened as part of 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, Perú. The film won the Adriana and Dolores Ehlers award for Best Short Documentary at Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México in Puebla.
