--- title: "Free Leonard Peltier" year: 2025 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/free-leonard-peltier" fi1m_id: "free-leonard-peltier" imdb_id: "tt34966036" tmdb_id: 1400778 wikidata_id: "Q131965048" fi1m_score: 57 critics_score: 58 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-10-10" updated: "2026-10-22T03:01:50.588572+00:00" region: "CZ" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Free Leonard Peltier (2025) Directed by Jesse Short Bull, David France · 1h 50m · Documentary ## Identity Free Leonard Peltier - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/free-leonard-peltier - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** free-leonard-peltier - **IMDb ID:** tt34966036 - **TMDB ID:** 1400778 - **Wikidata ID:** Q131965048 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34966036/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1400778, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131965048 **Fi1m score: 57** · Critics 58 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Half a century of outrage, narrated at the speed of a grant application > A fifty-year injustice and the people trying to end it before the clock runs out. The campaign footage is alive and Peltier’s own voice is quietly devastating; the history around them is a lecture that never makes its strongest case. ## Synopsis Leonard Peltier has been in a United States federal prison since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents during a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975. He has always said he did not do it. David France and Jesse Short Bull’s documentary follows the last push to get him out: a campaign run by a younger generation of Native activists who were not born when he went in, working the corridors of Washington in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency. Alongside the campaign, the film goes back through the record, the trial, the witnesses and the evidence, with Peltier himself speaking from inside. The clock is the story. Peltier is an old man now, and the chance will not come again. ## Review Leonard Peltier went to prison in 1977 for the killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota two years earlier, and he has said from the first day that he did not do it. David France, who made *How to Survive a Plague*, and Jesse Short Bull, who co-directed *Lakota Nation vs. United States*, have made a film about the final push to get him out. It is two films, really: a history of the case and a record of the campaign. The campaign film is good. The history film is a lecture, and it takes up most of the 110 minutes. Start with what works. The campaign is run by Native activists who were not born when Peltier went in, and Kyle Bell’s camera stays with them in the last weeks of the Biden presidency: in cars, in corridors, in rooms where the answer is always that someone will get back to them. These people are tired and funny and plainly frightened of running out of time, and the film is at its most alive when it simply lets them get on with it. We were moved by them, more than we expected, because nobody on screen makes a speech about hope; they make phone calls. Peltier himself is the other asset. He is heard from inside, an old man now, and he talks about half a century in federal custody without self-pity and without much anger either, which is somehow worse. When he is speaking the film has a centre. When he stops, it goes back to the archive. And the archive is the problem. France and Short Bull have gathered a great deal: footage from the reservation in the 1970s, news reports, trial material, people who were there. What they have not done is arrange it so that a newcomer comes out knowing what the single strongest reason to doubt the conviction is. Grievances arrive one after another, each introduced with the same solemnity, and the film treats a procedural complaint and a matter of life and death as if they weighed the same. By the hour mark we were bored, and then we were cross about being bored by a story in which a man has lost fifty years. Hannah Vanderlan and Adam Evans cut between the two films, and every time the present starts to build, the past interrupts it. The rhythm is that of a worthy television special, a chapter of history, a chapter of now, repeat, and it means neither strand reaches the pace it needs. The campaign in particular is a race against a date on the calendar, and the editing keeps pausing to check the map. There is also a question the film does not ask. We will not describe how it ends, but a film called *Free Leonard Peltier* ought to have something to say about what freedom would mean for a man who has spent fifty years inside, and whether getting him through the gate is the same as clearing his name. It does not ask. It campaigns, and it stops. Michael Apted’s *Incident at Oglala* told this story in 1992 and told it more clearly, which is an awkward thing to say about a film made with thirty more years of evidence to hand. What this one adds is the final push and the young people running it, and for them it is worth an evening. For the case itself you will need to do some reading afterwards, which is not what a documentary is for. *Fi1m score 57, published 10 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Free Leonard Peltier worth watching?** *Free Leonard Peltier* is worth watching for the campaign footage and for Peltier's own voice, but not for the case itself, and we scored it 57. The young Native activists working Washington in the last weeks of the Biden presidency are the film's best material; the history around them is a lecture that never lands its strongest argument. **How long is Free Leonard Peltier, and what is it rated?** *Free Leonard Peltier* runs 1h 50m. It is a documentary film. **Where can I watch Free Leonard Peltier in Czechia?** *Free Leonard Peltier* is not on any streaming or rental service in Czechia at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Free Leonard Peltier, and is it suitable for children?** *Free Leonard Peltier* has no UK certificate and an R in the United States, which for a documentary means adult subject matter rather than anything graphic on screen. It concerns a 1975 shoot-out in which two FBI agents died and a man's fifty years in federal prison, told through archive and interviews. Older teenagers interested in the case will be fine; younger children will be bored rather than frightened. **How does Free Leonard Peltier compare to The Thin Blue Line?** *Free Leonard Peltier* is the weaker film and [*The Thin Blue Line*](https://film.one/film/the-thin-blue-line) is the one to see first if you want a documentary that argues a wrongful conviction and wins. Morris builds a single clear case; France and Short Bull pile up grievances and treat small and large ones alike. Watch *Free Leonard Peltier* for the campaigners and Peltier himself, not for clarity on the evidence. ### Reviews we read (4) - **Variety**, Joe Leydon (75/100, inferred): Leydon finds the documentary engaging, persuasive and newly timely, while arguing that Peltier’s case exposes a profound injustice. He singles out its carefully assembled historical record and emotionally satisfying final sequence. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/free-leonard-peltier-review-1236288345/) - **Screen Daily**, Amber Wilkinson (65/100, inferred): The headline frames the documentary as a story of a 50-year fight for freedom gaining momentum. The visible standfirst notes that Peltier remains under house arrest; the review text is unavailable to identify further praise or criticism. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/free-leonard-peltier-review-a-50-year-fight-for-freedom-gains-momentum/5203016.article) - **IndieWire**, Christian Blauvelt (C+): The critic finds the documentary a useful primer but ultimately scattered and disappointing. He faults its surface-level treatment, especially the unclear account of Peltier’s case and its broader significance. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/free-leonard-peltier-documentary-review-1235089114/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (30/100, inferred): Fienberg finds the documentary timely but unsatisfying, criticizing its dry recitation and failure to examine what justice means after Peltier’s commutation. He praises its footage of Native activists’ current campaign as the film’s freshest and most potent material. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/free-leonard-peltier-review-1236119672/) ## Details - **Director:** Jesse Short Bull, David France - **Director:** Jesse Short Bull, David France - **Writer:** Jesse Short Bull, David France - **Cinematography:** Kyle Bell, Kyle Bell - **Editor:** Hannah Vanderlan, Adam Evans - **Producer:** David France, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire - **Cast:** Leonard Peltier - **Runtime:** 1h 50m - **First release (the US):** 27 January 2025 - **Genres:** Documentary ## Where to watch in Czechia Not streaming, renting or buying in Czechia at the last check. ## If you liked this - *Incident at Oglala* (1992): Michael Apted’s earlier account of the same case, and the clearer of the two. - *How to Survive a Plague* (2012): France’s AIDS activism film, where the archive and the anger pull in the same direction. - *Lakota Nation vs. United States* (2022): Short Bull’s Black Hills documentary, angrier and better organised than this one. - *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), Fi1m 90: Errol Morris shows how a documentary can argue a wrongful conviction and win. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-blue-line.md) - *Smoke Signals* (1998): A road film from the reservation that is funny about everything this film is solemn about. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/free-leonard-peltier