Leonard Peltier, a surviving member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), spent nearly 50 years behind bars before President Biden commuted his sentence.
In the documentary Free Leonard Peltier, acclaimed directors Jesse Short Bull and David France, along with several producers, revisit one of the most discredited convictions in modern America. Peltier was sentenced to two life terms for the 1975 murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Oglala, South Dakota.
Kevin McKiernan, one of the film’s producers, was the only reporter at the shoot-out on June 26, 1975. “I covered the shootout in Oglala from underneath my truck. I was getting great access to the material, but I wondered if I’d gotten too close. Especially when I stayed overnight there and found a bullet hole in my bed frame,” he recalled.
Free Leonard Peltier captures the fear and apprehension that gripped Pine Ridge at the time. The film chronicles occupations, arrests, demands, and assassination, while the story of Peltier unfolds. Initially a one-time auto mechanic who had joined the AIM movement to protect and advocate for his people, Peltier quickly found himself in a war.
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year, will be released on Netflix on October 12. McKiernan revealed that the title of the film was inspired by the headline that Santa Barbara Independent editors dreamt up for his 2017 print story.
After years of relentless efforts to secure Peltier’s freedom, his sentence was commuted by President Biden 15 minutes before he left office. “It was a real heart thumper up to the last second,” McKiernan said. “His native admirers and friends who had worked to get him out were there at the prison in Florida.”
Biden recognized that Peltier’s trial was marred by government misconduct, including false FBI affidavits obtained by coercing and threatening a witness with harm to her children and the withholding of exculpatory evidence — a ballistic test that eliminated Peltier’s gun as the murder weapon.
“Nobody believed it when it happened. They were just shouting, and that’s in the film, and people raising their fists in the air and just crying. A lot of people were crying when the word came down,” McKiernan said.
They kept him in custody for another month before releasing him. However, after that month, hundreds of people gathered to welcome him home. “Later that night, I went over to his house, and all the other producers showed him the Free Leonard Peltier movie.”
“He couldn’t see very well, but he could hear. And, he had about a dozen things that needed to be corrected,” said Mckiernan.
Although he is not native himself, Mckiernan said, “Most of the producers are native.” He added, “It’s really good to have native people in those positions, because it’s an indigenous story about indigenous rights. Leonard’s become the standard bearer for people who wanted justice, but also for native people, who sympathize with him and realize that there are so many cases that go wrong because of racism.”
Now Peltier creates and sells art that reflects his Native American heritage and activism. His work uses symbols of Indigenous identity, spirituality, and social struggles to convey resilience and the fight for native rights. Recently, he showcased his art in New York.
For more information on the film visit freeleonardfilm.com and to see the trailer visit firstshowing.net/2026/official-trailer-for-free-leonard-peltier-true-story-activism-doc-film.
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