February 2005

José Luis Matías Alonso (Nahua) produces documentaries about Nahua communities in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. He recently formed his own production company, Ojo de Tigre Video-Mirada India. Matías has worked with the indigenous media organization Altepetl Nahuas de la Montaña de Guerrero since 1995, teaching video production and editing to indigenous videomakers, and has worked with the Centro de Video Indígena of Oaxaca, and the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas. Matías is from Acatlan, Guerrero, and is a fluent speaker of Nahuatl.

"For some time now, people foreign to our culture have been making films from a different perspective. They would do fieldwork in the countryside for a week or a month, but they don't grasp the depths of our people, and they're never going to-because it's something that is lived, that is felt. When we make film from within, it's because we've felt it. So, it is very important that nowadays we are able to tell our own stories as indigenous peoples."

Screened by NMAI

• Nikan Ikon Ti Topajcha/This Is How We Heal Ourselves Here (2003) director
• Atzatzilistli: Pidiendo Agua/ Praying for Water (2000) director

Image credits: José Luis Matías Alonso - Photograph by Amalia Cordova, NMAI