Free Leonard Peltier

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Free Leonard Peltier

2025

1h 50m

Documentary

Crime

History

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Popcornmeter

83%

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12 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

In the early 1970s, the United States was roiled by protest: Vietnam, women's rights, gay rights, black power and, rising up at the forefront, the American Indian Movement, AIM. Leonard Peltier was a young mechanic when he joined AIM to advocate for his people and quickly found himself swept up in a war between activists and the US government. FREE LEONARD PELTIER, the new documentary from acclaimed directors Jesse Short Bull and David France, revisits the turbulent era of AIM, bringing alive the occupations, arrests, demands, and assassinations and culminating in the FBI's descent onto the compound on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where Peltier was staying. After two FBI agents are killed in the ensuing shootout, Peltier is arrested, tried, convicted of their murder and sentenced to two life terms in prison in one of the most notorious and discredited legal judgments in modern America. Now, fifty years later, with Peltier still in jail, FREE LEONARD PELTIER arrives to revisit his case in a new era and to advocate for just what its title suggests.

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Ty Burr

Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)

Jan 31, 2025

3/4

A solid, stirring account of the fight to release Peltier, in his 80s and ailing, after five decades in prison for a crime everyone but the FBI believes he didn’t commit.

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Robert Daniels

RogerEbert.com

Jan 29, 2025

“Free Leonard Peltier” is as defiant as its subject.

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Daniel Fienberg

The Hollywood Reporter

Jan 28, 2025

The documentary has its finger on a pulse, but it isn’t prepared to say what the newly measured heart rate means.

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John Serba

Decider

9 hrs ago

Free Leonard Peltier is a rock-solid activist documentary, informative and thoroughly watchable.

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Steve Erickson

Gay City News

1 day ago

Despite some missteps, “Free Leonard Peltier” forges a damning indictment of what justice really means in the US.

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Jonathon Wilson

Ready Steady Cut

1 day ago

4/5

The movie, by David France and Jesse Short Bull, is not striving for even-handed documentary filmmaking. It’s a work of unashamed and comprehensive activism...

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David France

Director

Jesse Short Bull

Director

Leonard Peltier

Self

David France

Producer

Jhane Myers

Producer

Paul McGuire

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Synopsis

In the early 1970s, the United States was roiled by protest: Vietnam, women's rights, gay rights, black power and, rising up at the forefront, the American Indian Movement, AIM. Leonard Peltier was a young mechanic when he joined AIM to advocate for his people and quickly found himself swept up in a war between activists and the US government. FREE LEONARD PELTIER, the new documentary from acclaimed directors Jesse Short Bull and David France, revisits the turbulent era of AIM, bringing alive the occupations, arrests, demands, and assassinations and culminating in the FBI's descent onto the compound on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where Peltier was staying. After two FBI agents are killed in the ensuing shootout, Peltier is arrested, tried, convicted of their murder and sentenced to two life terms in prison in one of the most notorious and discredited legal judgments in modern America. Now, fifty years later, with Peltier still in jail, FREE LEONARD PELTIER arrives to revisit his case in a new era and to advocate for just what its title suggests.

Director: David France, Jesse Short Bull
Producer: David France, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, N. Bird Runningwater
Distributor: Netflix
Production Co: Public Square Films
Genre: Documentary, Crime, History
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 12, 2026
Runtime: 1h 50m

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