Netflix documentary chronicles Leonard Peltier’s long fight for freedom
A new Netflix documentary, Free Leonard Peltier, explores the nearly 50-year imprisonment of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. President Biden commuted his life sentence in January 2025, allowing him to serve the rest under house arrest. Directed by David France and Jesse Short Bull, the film captures his release and the long campaign for his freedom.
The Netflix film Free Leonard Peltier, directed by David France and Jesse Short Bull, was scheduled to debut at Sundance shortly after Biden’s January 2025 commutation. It follows Peltier’s release and the campaign for him to return to North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation. Peltier, an American Indian Movement leader, had been imprisoned almost 50 years over the 1975 Pine Ridge shootout deaths of two FBI agents, which he denied.
The documentary also traces Native activism’s broader history, including resistance to government boarding schools and AIM’s 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Biden’s action let Peltier serve the remainder under house arrest; it did not grant a pardon.
The film could shape public understanding of a case that has long divided observers, potentially drawing new attention to questions about federal prosecutions of Indigenous activists. For Peltier’s supporters and Native communities, it may offer recognition and a renewed platform; for others, it could prompt debate over the trial’s fairness and the meaning of Biden’s commutation. Its wider effect may be to keep discussions of historical injustice and legal accountability in view.