In advance of his appearance this week at an L.A. screening of "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier," Ben Carnes of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee discussed that film, Leonard Peltier, and a variety of other Native American issues.
The free showing of "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier" will take place on December 17 at the National Center for Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo at 7pm. Carnes, who will present the film, believes it is one of a few documentaries that explains and clarifies the circumstances surrounding Peltier's imprisonment. (Another film he mentioned was Incident at Oglala by Michael Apted.)
At the time of Peltier's alleged shooting of an FBI agent (June 1975), Carnes said that "they just wanted to arrest a group of AIM (American Indian Movement) people and have a big media riff because there was such a propaganda campaign that was going on against the American Indian Movement--that they were being trained by communists in Cuba, all kinds of derogatory things to help discredit them. But on the day of that shootout there were just strange things that happening that day that screwed their plans up. When the agents went in, there was another agent."
Interview: Ben Carnes on the film "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier" by RP
Ben Carnes on the film "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier"