The 15th International Festival of Indigenous Peoples’ Film and Communications will be held in June 2025. It will feature screenings in Indigenous communities and Peru’s main cities.

Peru will host the 15th International Festival of Indigenous Peoples’ Film and Communications, a key event for raising awareness about the experiences of indigenous peoples through film. This Festival will be held from June 20 to 28, 2025 under the main topic of “Voices and Pictures of Our Mother Earth”. It will bring together filmmakers, production collectives, and Indigenous Peoples’ representatives from the Americas and other parts of the world.

Organized by the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas (CLACPI) since 1985, the festival has been disseminating Indigenous filmmaking and promoting reflection on the role of Indigenous Peoples in the audiovisual media for almost 40 years. In Peru, this edition is in charge of Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP), Escuela de Cine Amazónico (ECA) and CHIRAPAQ Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú, all of them members of CLACPI in the country, with an outstanding commitment to upholding Indigenous rights and promoting and disseminating Indigenous filmmaking.

(Photo: Luisenrrique Becerra Velarde / CHIRAPAQ)

The Festival’s main goal is to spur a comprehensive discussion on climate change and its impact on Indigenous life systems. This issue is especially relevant, given that Indigenous peoples are one of the most affected groups by the impact of climate change, suffering the deterioration of their territories and natural resources. According to the Amazonian writer and member of CHIRAPAQ, Róger Rumrrill, Indigenous cinema “is a tool of cultural resistance and defense of territorial rights, at a time of world crisis.” Rumrrill recalls that 80% of the world’s biodiversity is in Indigenous territories, and defending their forests, mountains, and rivers also translates into preserving life on the planet.

“On the other hand, the Festival is a dialectical leap, since Indigenous people started as subjects to become image creators,” he says. Through cinema, CLACPI and its member organizations seek to improve the visibility of Indigenous Peoples’ demands and proposals on defending their rights and preserving their territories including their full right to self-representation and the principle of sovereignty over the image of Indigenous Peoples.

(Photo: Wapikoni Mobile)

The Festival is expected to receive 300 international and national representatives, who will exchange, reflect and analyze issues around Indigenous communications and its potential. The Festival also seeks to consolidate Indigenous cinema in Peru, promoting its development as an intercultural tool that strengthens the struggles and organizational processes of Indigenous Peoples.

The award categories in this festival are a specific difference from other editions. This 15th Festival will recognize five categories that address great Indigenous challenges: territorial resistance actions led by women, traditional knowledge as a response to climate change, the specific issues of Indigenous children, actions in defense of Mother Earth, and the diversity of identity expressions, covering gender and sexuality.

The Festival will have an International Jury composed of ten reputed Indigenous communicators, filmmakers and videographers who work in support of Indigenous Peoples, as well as outstanding Indigenous leaders. The call for projects will begin in December 2024.

The 15th Festival will include itinerant community exhibitions in Ayacucho, Lima, Loreto and Ucayali, as well as screenings in the main cities of these regions. There will be photographic and Indigenous painted art exhibitions and conversations that will address key issues such as the evolution of Indigenous cinema and its contribution to the strengthening of Indigenous identity. There will also be forums focused on climate change and its impact on Indigenous Peoples, with special attention to national policies and Indigenous proposals to address this global crisis.

As usual in each edition, the Festival will include an international workshop on cinema and Indigenous communication where participants will take stock of the existing challenges for the exercise of the right to communication in the region. At the same time, there will be workshops for Indigenous filmmakers to develop technical and creative skills, and the Festival will end with CLACPI’s General Assembly and the election of the next festival venue.

The art for the 15th Festival represents a frog fisherman who illuminates the Amazon night and has been created by the visual artist of Uitoto and Cocama origin, Rember Yahuarcani.

The last edition of the Festival was held in 2022, in Ecuador, and was organized by the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE). It received participants from 18 countries and 49 films were screened. In that edition, the Honduran documentary “Berta Soy Yo”, about the social fighter Berta Cáceres, was recognized in a special way.

Peru was chosen as the Festival’s venue to recognize the rich cultural diversity of the country and to warn about the challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples. With 55 Andean and Amazonian peoples, Peru is diverse in cultures and languages, but also a scenario of territorial conflicts, violence, and discrimination. The murder of more than 30 environmental defenders in the last decade, the deaths during the protests of 2022 and 2023, the parliamentarian reforms that encourage deforestation, and the budget cuts to subnational film creation, show the vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples and the urgency of making their struggles visible.

(Photo: Marco González / CHIRAPAQ)

Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas (CLACPI) is an international network that brings together filmmakers and organizations from more than 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and partners in North America and Europe. Since 1985, CLACPI has strived to strengthen the voice of Indigenous Peoples through cinema and audiovisual communications. Through production, dissemination, and capacity-building on media, CLACPI seeks to steer more visibility to Indigenous cultures, promote dialogue, and defend their rights.

For more information about the call, application process, and activities of this 15th Festival, you can write to [email protected]

Top photo: Luisenrrique Becerra Velarde / CHIRAPAQ