Sundance’s Free Leonard Peltier outlines the decades-long efforts to free the Indigenous activist from prison – up to the commutation of his sentence one week before the premiere

Of all the documentaries at the Sundance film festival this year, perhaps none is as timely as Free Leonard Peltier, Jesse Short Bull and David France’s film on the Indigenous activist imprisoned for nearly half a century.

Peltier, now 80 years old, is serving consecutive life sentences for the killing of two FBI agents during a shootout at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, though he has maintained his innocence. Activists, celebrities and liberation advocates such as Nelson Mandela have called for his release for decades, citing railroaded justice and evidence of prosecutorial misconduct; the FBI and law enforcement, meanwhile, have campaigned vociferously against any commutation of his sentence.

Sundance film festival: In her feature debut, writer-director Eva Victor depicts the aftermath of sexual assault with striking naturalism and surprising grace

By now, a full week into Sundance, it is clear that the indie film festival is in a bit of a slump. While the Utah fest boasts an impressive and impassioned slate of documentaries this year – I haven’t seen a dud yet, and I’ve seen many – the narrative offerings have mostly fizzled on impact. Plenty of beautiful shots and atmospheric vibes, aimless plot and unearned yearning.

Which made the premiere of Sorry, Baby, comedian Eva Victor’s feature debut as a writer-director, an especially brisk breath of fresh air on Monday night. Sharply written, smartly structured and well-acted, with a star-making turn from Victor herself, the 93-minute black comedy is not only nimble and consistently funny, but one of the best, most honest renderings of life after sexual assault that I’ve seen.

Sorry, Baby is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

New documentary The Alabama Solution exposes rampant state violence and inhumane conditions inside prisons

Floors streaked with blood, rat-infested cells, flooded hallways and routine beatings by officers – these are but some of the degrading conditions within Alabama state prisons revealed by leaked cellphone videos in a shocking, galvanizing new documentary that premiered at the Sundance film festival on Tuesday.

The Alabama Solution, directed by Andrew Jarecki (The Jinx) and Charlotte Kaufman, reports on the inhumane living conditions, forced labor and rampant officer violence against the state’s incarcerated population, as told by inmates who served as confidential, covert sources. The two-hour film, made over the course of six years, also documents prisoners’ longstanding efforts to improve conditions deemed “unconstitutional” by the US justice department in a 2020 report, under constant physical threat from prison management. Despite federal calls for prison reform, Alabama’s prisons currently operate at 200% capacity, the film notes, with only one-third of the required staff. The state’s prisons have the highest rates of murder, drug addiction and death in the country.