On the heels of Indigenous People’s Day, Emmy award-winning producer Jhane Myers will screen her latest documentary, Free Leonard Peltier on Oct. 14 in Ethel S. LeFrak '41 and Samuel J. LeFrak Theatre. The screening is co-sponsored by Barnard’s Anthropology and American Studies departments, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and Columbia University’s Native American Council, and will be followed by a discussion with Myers herself.
“I'm really excited because I want to get people thinking in a different way. And I think that's what my work does,” said Myers.
“If I can lend my creativity and my talent as a producer or as an artist or in history or language — if I can lend any of this to help make progress and [represent] on a global scale, then I think my job is done.”
Free Leonard Peltier, produced by Myers and directed by Jesse Short Bull and David France, focuses on the life and imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, a surviving activist of the American Indian Movement. The documentary premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, just after Peltier’s life sentence was commuted by then-President Joe Biden. Students can learn more about the life of Leonard Peltier by visiting NDN Collective.
Myers is a member of the Comanche and Blackfeet nations. She is an acclaimed artist, filmmaker, and producer known for her dedication to Native American representation and visibility within the arts. Myers has received numerous accolades, from Emmy and Producers Guild of America wins and nominations, to being featured as a subject on MSNBC’s 2023 special, The Culture is Indigenous Women. Her production credits include Words from a Bear and However Wide the Sky: Places of Power. She has also established herself as a vital cultural resource for Native-content projects produced by big networks and studios, like Paramount’s 1883 and Amazon’s The Wilds.
Myers is no stranger to the Barnard campus — she visited back in 2022 for the screening of the movie Prey and a post-film discussion. Her upcoming arrival to campus marks a long-anticipated return, for students and professors alike. And she hopes her screening will spark important conversations amongst Barnard students.
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The screening coincides with the ongoing work of Severin Fowles, professor of anthropology and American studies at Barnard. Much of his research and coursework revolves around Native American and Indigenous studies, igniting his same passion for the subject in his students.
Fowles’s Laboratory Methods in Archaeology course is currently in the process of analyzing artifacts from their summer excavation on the 18th-century Indo-Hispanic plaza of Embudo in New Mexico.
His students are tasked with examining the heritage of a mixed Indigenous and settler village in partnership with the local community as it commemorates its 300th anniversary. Their findings will culminate in a new exhibit at the Embudo Valley Library.
Fowles also worked with alumnae this past summer at Picuris Pueblo in New Mexico, where they assisted with the Picuris’ Feast Day tribal museum reopening. The exhibit, titled Reemergence, broadly centered on Picuris history, resiliency and innovation.
“My experience working on this project was incredibly eye-opening and singular,” said Simona Cheung '25. “From participating in excavations at Picuris to writing a Picuris-based senior thesis and volunteering at their museum, being Sev’s student has given me many opportunities to engage with Indigenous Studies beyond the books.”
Students and alumnae, such as Cheung, are enthusiastic about Jhane Myers’s upcoming screening. “I think it’s wonderful that she’s chosen to return for her newest film,” said Cheung. “It shows that interest levels are high and the commitment to Native American and Indigenous studies at Barnard is only growing.”
Through on-campus opportunities such as Myers’s visit and the screening of Free Leonard Peltier, as well as the work of Professor Fowles and his students, Barnard is staunchly dedicated to preserving and uplifting the heritage of Indigenous people, now more than ever.
Myers hopes her work will inspire the next generation of women creatives and artists.
To any Barnard student longing to spark change with a career in the arts: “Use every avenue that you have — you may have more than what you think. Don't just use one avenue, use them all.”