Trudie Styler Instagram – In January, Leonard Peltier’s two consecutive life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents was commuted to indefinite house arrest by President Joe Biden, and earlier this month Peltier was finally released and transferred. Peltier has always denied killing the agents, despite admitting being involved in the shoot-out on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975.
The late and great Michael Apted, my dear friend and collaborator on our documentary Moving the Mountain, campaigned for Peltier’s release for many years and made a compelling and sobering film about his plight in 1992 – Incident at Oglala. As well as extensive interviews with the people involved in the incident on the day, it is a stark education in both the US government’s treatment of American Indians, as well as the conflicts between different American Indian communities. The severe poverty they were suffering and the blatant discrimination enacted by US law enforcers is a shocking indictment of how the US (like nations all over the world) has been built on theft of land, disrespect for indigenous peoples, racism, prejudice and a complete lack of justice.
Incident at Oglala, with cinematography by Maryse Alberti and editing by Susanne Rostock, both of whom also made Moving the Mountain with Michael and me, was nominated for the Critics Award in 1992.
You can watch it on Amazon Prime or YouTube.
Photo 1: Angel White Eyes/NDN Collective/Reuters
Photo 2: #LeonardPeltier (Bettman Archive)
Photo 3: #IncidentatOglala Documentary Poster
Photo 4: #MichaelApted by 20CentFox/Courtesy Everett C | Posted on 26/Feb/2025 23:06:49
