NC LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

A MESSAGE FROM THE ELDERS. Nearly 80% of the terrestrial ecoregions are inhabited and protected by one or more Indigenous peoples. The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the peoples who are native to the Americas or the Western Hemisphere. Their ancestors are among the pre-Columbian populations of South, Central, and North America, as well as the Caribbean. Indigenous peoples live throughout the continent. While often minorities in their countries, Indigenous peoples are the majority in Greenland and close to a majority in Bolivia and Guatemala.
There were approximately 14 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., accounting for 3.3% of the population in 2014. This population included individuals, many Indigenous, who escaped from violence, disasters, and economic stagnation in their countries and entered at times without documentation, and others overstayed their permits.
Some 8.3 million undocumented immigrants work in the economy, or 5.2 percent of the workforce. They work in multiple sectors, including construction (1.5 million), restaurants (1 million), agriculture and farms (320,000), landscaping (300,000), and food processing and manufacturing (200,000), among other occupations. Almost half of the foreign-born workforce is Hispanic. As these realities are caught in controversy, they are also caught on camera.
The 2025 NCLAFF would examine multiple stories of these communities, who are at the center of much debate today. Minority stories that speak loudly to the majority that benefits from the environmental services and conservation of the diversity of the planet, and from the labor that sustains the threads of life on this part of the planet. Here is their message.