Canadian Premiere
Leonard Peltier has spent nearly 50 years in prison for a crime he has always denied: the killing of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Free Leonard Peltier takes a look at the forces that have shaped his life, from government-run boarding schools to his prominent role in the American Indian Movement. As state violence escalated against Native activists, Peltier became the scapegoat for a tragedy rooted in centuries of colonial injustice. His conviction, built on discredited evidence and prosecutorial misconduct, ignited an international campaign for justice that has endured for decades.
Co-directed by Jesse Short Bull and David France, this award-winning documentary constructs a powerful counter-narrative to his conviction based on archival testimony and historical record. As calls for Peltier’s release intensify, the film situates his struggle within a larger continuum of Indigenous resistance — and a global pattern of silencing those who challenge state power. This isn’t a history that has ended, but one still being written.
Media Partner
Community Partner
USA
2025
English
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Jodi Archambault, The Schmidt Family Foundation, James Costa, Trevor Burgess, Lekha Singh, Bryn Mooser, Justin Lacob, Laura Choi Raycroft
Producer
David France, Jhane Myers, Paul Mcguire, Bird Runningwater
Cinematography
Kyle Bell
Editor
Adam Evans, Hannah Vanderlan
Original Music
Mato Wayuhi
Jesse Short Bull
Jesse Short Bull is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and a writer and director with a deep connection to his home in the Badlands of South Dakota. His most recent film, Lakota Nation vs. United States (2022), premiered at Tribeca in 2022 and has received Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and Outstanding Direction: Documentary. The recipient of a fellowship from the Sundance Documentary Fund, Short Bull is also the first Indigenous filmmaker to be named to the prestigious DOC NYC Shortlist program.
Filmography: Lakota Nation vs. United States (2022)
David France
David France is an Academy Award–nominated filmmaker, New York Times bestselling author, and award-winning investigative journalist. He directed How to Survive a Plague (2012), which received Academy and Emmy nominations and a Peabody Award. His 2017 film, The Death & Life of Marsha P. Johnson, a Netflix Original Documentary, won the Outfest Freedom Award and a Special Jury Recognition from Sheffield International Documentary Festival. His latest film, HBO’s How to Survive a Pandemic (2022), won The Cinema for Peace Award on Global Health 2022 and an Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary.
Filmography: How to Survive a Plague (2012); The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017); Welcome to Chechnya (2020); How to Survive a Pandemic (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
Afternoons of Solitude
Pacification director Albert Serra turns his unflinching gaze on the subject of bullfighting, and in particular the famous young matador Andrés Roca Rey. The film challenges us to look its subject square in the eye and draw our own conclusions.
The Plague
At a water polo camp, Ben is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Terrified of incurring his campmates’ wrath, he joins them in tormenting a kid whose skin rash has been branded “the plague”. But then he experiences a breakout of his own...
