Third World California

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Third World California is a documentary film by Otavio Juliano. It showcases the plight of undocumented immigrants living within an Indian reservation in the Lower Coachella Valley in the California desert. Because of the reservation's status as a sovereign entity, environmental regulations, building codes, fire safety codes and other basic legal protections cannot be enforced there. As a result, the undocumented residents of the reservation live in squalor next to mounds of sewage sludge, enduring some of the highest summer temperatures in the world in metal trailers without air-conditioning or reliable plumbing, all the while being charged high rentals by their tribal member landlords.

The film is set to debut in the 22nd Chicago Latino Film Festival.