Ojo de Agua Comunicación

Established in 1989 by Mexico’s National Indigenous Institute (INI), the TMA programme sought to encourage Indigenous communities to use video as a means of expressing their own perspectives. To this end, videomakers led a series of workshops to train and support participants. The Indigenous Video Centre of Oaxaca shared similar goals. It was headed by Guillermo Monteforte, a central figure in the creation of Ojo de Agua Comunicación.

In 1996, Monteforte and several of his collaborators distanced themselves from these institutions due to a series of ideological disagreements. According to them, while the INI and its programmes promoted a model of social communication, the future members of the collective were more interested in equipping communities with the tools and training to create content based on their own visions and needs.

That same year, they founded Ojo de Agua Comunicación with the core goal of promoting Indigenous and community-based media. Still active today, the collective is based in Oaxaca and has produced dozens of films across different parts of the state over the years.

One of the most striking features of this collective is its long-running work in the field. Its productions offer a window into the history of Indigenous communities and the evolution of community-based audiovisual media over the decades. This is thanks to Ojo de Agua Comunicación’s ongoing self-reflection, openness to new collaborators, and ability to adapt while staying true to its founding goals. This continuous process of change and renewal gives the collective a living quality.

Ojo de Agua Comunicación has created a wide range of work in various formats, including documentaries, short films and television series. In recent years, however, much of the collective’s focus has shifted towards community radio.

Ojo de Agua Comunicación operates in three key areas: production, distribution and training. Defining itself as an audiovisual and sound production group, the collective explores communication methods tailored to working with civil society organisations and Indigenous communities. It also devotes its efforts to media training, developing communication strategies aimed at promoting social transformation and democratising the media landscape.

Guillermo Monteforte explains that their production model is collaborative, ensuring communities are involved in shaping ideas as well as appearing in front of the camera: “We were convinced that the media, in the hands of communities, could be an incredibly useful tool for garnering attention and appreciation around their ways of life, their rights, their struggles, demands, strengths, ideas and anything else that public and private media hide.”

The collective has a particular focus on gender. According to its members, gender stereotypes have an especially oppressive effect on Indigenous communities, which is exacerbated by the added dimension of racism. Through their work, Ojo de Agua Comunicación aims to develop a gender approach that is grounded in community perspectives, encouraging training and collaboration with media outlets in order to embed this approach within the cultural and social contexts of these communities.

Dissemination is also a key part of the collective’s work, involving participation in gatherings, forums, screenings and seminars. Meanwhile, their website hosts an extensive catalogue of freely accessible documentaries and series.

In recent years, the collective has also launched the community film festival El Lugar que Habitamos [The Place We Inhabit]. What started as a showcase of community cinema and radio in 2015 has grown into a platform for sharing knowledge and screening a wide range of productions from Mexico and beyond, all of which are rooted in community perspectives. The festival also features a dedicated radio strand called Las voces que somos [The Voices We Are]. In addition to film screenings, the festival hosts a programme of talks, workshops and concerts.