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 Blue Trail
77-year-old Tereza makes a break for the Brazilian jungle in this trippy septuagenarian fantasy, the latest from Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro is a quirky picaresque, lushly photographed and filled with mordant humour.
Calle Málaga
Seventy-nine-year-old María Ángeles lives independently in Tangier's Spanish quarter. When her daughter pressures her into selling her apartment, she refuses to give in, finding in her old age a new resilience and an unexpected romantic connection.
Streetwalker
Middle class and married, Elena (Miroslava Stern) has been seduced by an unscrupulous swindler, who turns out to be the pimp of Maria (Elda Peralta), a prostitute and Elena's estranged sister. But are they really so different under the skin?
Two Prosecutors
In the midst of Stalin’s purges, a naïve prosecutor sets out to investigate a prisoner’s innocence, unaware of the labyrinthine bureaucracy awaiting him. A Kafkaesque procedural thriller about the pursuit of justice in the face of corruption.
Image: © SBS Productions
Salón México
Cheated by her pimp, Mercedes recklessly steals his wallet and is only saved from a severe beating by the intervention of a kindly policeman. Hard-hitting social realism sits beside patriotic sentimentality and multiple red hot dance sequences.
The Kneeling Goddess
In which wealthy industrialist Arturo de Cordova purchases the titular nude sculpture of his lover (María Félix) as an anniversary gift for his innocent, adoring wife. Soon enough the wife is dead, though untangling just how and why is part of the fun.