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‘Free Leonard Peltier’ Filmmakers on How Recently Released Activist Continues His Fight for Indigenous Communities: ‘His Fire Is Undiminished’
Directors David France and Jesse Short Bull describe the Indigenous activist's ongoing fight for Native American rights after his release from prison.
Just days ahead of the film’s Park City premiere, Peltier received clemency from President Joe Biden in one of his last acts before leaving office, sending the filmmakers back to the cutting room to hurriedly incorporate new material into their documentary. Prosecutors said the agents were shot at point-blank range by Peltier; his attorneys and supporters insist he did not pull the trigger and was instead framed by the government, the victim of a rigged trial that the Academy Award nominee France (“How to Survive a Plague”) characterizes as “a true tragedy and miscarriage of justice.” Two years before the shootout that landed Peltier in prison, hundreds of Native American activists — led by members of AIM — seized Wounded Knee, leading to a monthslong occupation.
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