ACT Human Rights Film Festival features 'Free Leonard Peltier' and Sundance award winner
Kelly Lyell
- The 10th annual ACT Human Rights Festival will feature two films from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
- The festival takes place at Colorado State University and The Lyric in Fort Collins.
- The festival features a variety of films, discussions and events.
Two films that were featured at the acclaimed 2025 Sundance Film Festival will be shown this weekend at The Lyric in Fort Collins as part of the 10th annual ACT Human Rights Festival, with the directors of both participating in live, in-person question-and-answer sessions beforehand.
“Life After,” an investigative documentary exploring the rights of the disabled and issues connected to assisted dying, will be shown immediately after a Q&A with director Reid Davenport at 7 p.m. Friday, April 4. “Life After” won the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award.
“Free Leonard Peltier,” which made its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival from Jan. 23-Feb. 2, will be shown immediately after a Q&A session at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, April 6, with director Jesse Short Bull and producer Jhane Myers. “Free Leonard Peltier” focuses on Peltier’s imprisonment, FBI actions that led to his controversial conviction and efforts to secure his release, according to a description on the Sundance Film Festival’s website. The film had to be updated just before its premiere, organizers of the ACT Film Festival said in a news release, when outgoing President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence on his final day in office.
The five-day ACT Film Festival begins Wednesday, April 2 with screenings and events at CSU's Lory Student Center, 1101 Center Ave. Mall, and The Lyric, 1209 N. College Ave. A full schedule is available online.
Other highlights include the documentary film “Separated,” exploring the policy and impacts of family separations of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, which will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at The Lyric, followed by a panel discussion of local immigration activists and experts about local responses and roles in immigration.
“The Story of Ne Kuko,” a short film about Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza walking out of a European museum with “stolen” art from his home county, will be shown at noon Friday at the Lory Student Center. A panel discussion about art, colonization and restitution, featuring staff from CSU’s Allicar Museum of Art and the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, will follow.
Twenty-four films designed to “inspire and engage audiences” will be screened during the annual festival, produced by CSU’s Department of Communication Studies, according to the news release.
Tickets are required for each of the screenings. Tickets for individual events are pay-as-you-can, organizers said, and available online at act2025.evventive.org beginning Wednesday, April 2. All-festival passes, as well as three-packs, virtual-only access and free tickets for CSU students, can also be purchased through that website. CSU employees can claim a limited number of free tickets through their Commitment to Campus website or a 20% discount on an all-festival pass.
CSU’s Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement office, SLICE, is providing the free student tickets and will also operate a free shuttle service on a continuous loop between the CSU campus to The Lyric from Thursday through Sunday, beginning 45 minutes before the first film of the day and ending about 15 minutes after the final film of the day. The pickup location on campus will be at the corner of West Plum Street and Meridian Avenue, just west of the CSU Transit Center and Lory Student Center.
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com,x.com/KellyLyell andfacebook.com/KellyLyell.news.