“Free Leonard Peltier” Proves That the Fight for Justice Is Just Beginning

By Bailey Pennick

Only days before the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Free Leonard Peltier, the real-life circumstances of the documentary subject changed. After 50 years in prison, Peltier’s life sentence was commuted to house arrest by President Biden.. Fellow Indigenous activist Jean Roach — who was present on that fateful day at the Pine Ridge Reservation — is touched as she speaks about the film and Peltier during the post-premiere discussion at The Ray Theatre. “It was really emotional watching all that stuff that we’ve been through,” she says about the film and her progress. “I really want to thank everybody, it wasn’t just a few of us — worldwide we’ve had support [for Leonard].” She pauses to collect herself before shifting to Peltier’s new circumstance: “I can’t believe it till I see him come out.”

This level of skepticism toward the promises of the United States government to the Indigenous people of this country is warranted. Throughout the sprawling film, which covers the creation and rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the corruption within the reservation system in conjunction with the U.S. state department, and the shoot-out at Pine Ridge reservation in 1975 and the consequences of that nightmare, the main feeling that you leave with as a viewer is disdain and distrust of the government systems that have allowed for this abusive treatment to continue. Not believing a piece of hopeful news until you can physically see it with your own eyes is just the beginning.

While Peltier’s case has been a call to action and resilience for so many over the last five decades, this new film by Jesse Short Bull and David France is looking to expand the call for freedom and justice for Indigenous people in this country. “For whatever reason I think that… the Creator kept pushing us together,” Short Bull says to the crowd. “Pushing David and I together to see how we could try to serve this story.” 

France agrees and has just been floored by the reaction to the project: “I have followed Leonard’s case for 50 years since his arrest and have learned so much from the American Indian Movement and the work that they did back then and continue to do today. When I realized that Leonard’s 50th anniversary was coming up — the anniversary of his incarceration —  I thought it was it came time for me to play my part in adding my voice to the Free Leonard Peltier movement and, luckily, Jesse and I shared that commitment and everybody on this stage today shared it, and it’s just been amazing.”

The audience cheers for the hard work of the film’s crew, but when asked about how the news of Peltier’s clemency changes the narrative of the film and the movement, activist Nick Tilsen pushes back on the idea of this being the end. “I don’t think it’s just about the next month, [and] I don’t think this film is just about the last 49 years,” he explains after the credits roll. “I think this film is about everything the Indigenous people have been through since the founding of this country. And every single one of Leonard’s struggles — from the boarding schools that he survived, all the way to his prosecution, all the way to his incarceration — that’s how this country has always treated Indigenous people.” The large group of collaborators on the stage nod their heads as Tilsen continues to speak, connecting the struggle of the Indigenous people with the present moment in U.S. history.

“Now we have a huge opportunity because we have not had that many victories as Indian people, but we have one now. We have one now and I want to say that it’s timely of where we are at in history. At this moment this film, his resistance, our resistance, is relevant right now at this historical moment when we’re watching the rise of authoritarianism here in the United States. It’s required we cannot fight authoritarianism in the shadows, we have to mobilize if we want a future, and if Leonard Peltier can fight for 49 years and win, then let’s go.”