I was subjected to severe pressure to find a time movie at the Sandans Film Festival for this year.Leonard Peltier Free“The directors Jesse Short The Taurus and David FranceA documentary film on the original American activist who spent nearly 50 years in prison for killing two federal factors, a crime that insists that he did not commit it.
A few days before the premiere of the movie at Park City, Blater received the mercy from President Joe Biden in one of his last works before leaving his post, and sending the directors to the cutting room to integrate new materials in a hurry into the documentary.
“The announcement came from the White House with a 14 -minute for the presidency of Biden,” says France. We were watching our mobile phones. the [Trump] The opening has already started. Biden was already in the room. Speeches and songs were spoken. Then the word came. ”
The free “Leonard Peltier”, which plays this week in the international competition in Thesaloniki documentary festivalIt is a copy of decades of a activist, as a leading member of the Indian American movement, or the goal, fought to expose the injustice committed by the American government against the original American societies. Described by diverseFrance says Joe Lidon “is” a well -looking documentary film by searching well and often raises anger “provides” a strong lesson of history, “it is an attempt,” [Peltier’s story] For a new generation. “
In fact, this is not the first time that the original American activist on the big screen: both “Thunderheart”, the 1992 drama that Michael Apted released loosely on the events that landed behind the bars, and the well -known documentary of APED, would study a previous arrow “the incident” that it defined alike.
On June 26, 1975, the armed FBI agents entered the Indian reserve Pine Ridge in the wounded knee, South Dakota, which led to an exchange of fire that left two FBI agents, Jack R. Coller and Ronald A. Williams, activist Joe Stontz. Prosecutors said that the agents were shot in a group of point by Billarier. His lawyers and supporters insist that he did not withdraw the trigger and instead was framing by the government, victims of a forged trial that the France Academy Award candidate (how to survive the plague “) describes as” a real tragedy and abortion of justice. ”
While “Free Leonard Peltier” uses interviews, archive clips and artificial intelligence legislation to re -create events that occurred on that day in the wounded knee, the film also puts Peltier’s trial and its plot in the broader context of crimes and quota among them, Grants Hands and Grans. Two years before the shooting of Peltier fell in prison, hundreds of indigenous American activists – led by AIM – the wounded knee, resulted in occupation for months. Talk to diverse On the anniversary of the confrontation, the bull shorts refer to this as a “liberation day”.
A member of the Aglala Lacuta tribe in South Dakota, Short Ball, who participated with Laura Thomaselli in directing the documentary.Lacotta nation against the United States“The government that is being made by the government to infringe on the original lands and seize them illegally, I grew up about 50 miles from Payne Ridge. He says that he was Pellet and his peers who did the important work of helping him understand his identity Lacotta and her appreciation, while preserving the beliefs and traditions that were at the risk of death.
Leonard’s generation was the generation that began to understand what was lost during the absorption period. This generation was clinging to clinging to what was still intact. “” I am grateful to Leonard’s generation and the sacrifices they had to make. “
While there were “big steps” to correct some of the historical errors the government made against the indigenous population, “there is still a fair share of the challenges that are still very prevalent,” says Short Paul. This is the thing that frustrates me. I see Leonard. Because we are fighting for the ground, because we are fighting for our culture, there will be another Leonard. “
Peltier itself was released from a federal prison in central Florida on February 18. The 80 -year -old, who is suffering from bad health and partial blindness, will offer the remainder of my lifelong sentences at home in Northern Dakota. However, managers say his work is far from doing it.
“The power of change, safety and love for our society is still at the forefront of his mind,” says Short Paul. “He still goes, and still wants to be active.”
“Its fire is not widespread,” added France. “It was great: How can you be treated badly as it was and deprived of it almost everything as it was for 49 years, and not losing the spirit of the warrior.”
Tsaloniki INTL. The Documentary Film Festival will be held from March 6 to 16.
