For months in the fall of 2021, all eyes in Burlington were on a small patch of land in the city’s South End.
People experiencing homelessness had camped in a lot on Sears Lane for several years. But the city moved to close the encampment in October 2021, citing public health and safety concerns.
The plan sparked an outcry from local activists, who rallied to protect the camp’s residents from eviction. Those activists included mutual aid groups such as Food Not Bombs, who staged free community meals at the site, and University of Vermont Mutual Aid. Organizers also protested at city council meetings, where they accused some council members of failing to recognize the rights of the camp’s residents. The camp was ultimately dismantled in December 2021.
Middlebury College filmmaker Daniel Levesque’s film “Anarchy in Vermont” chronicles the conflict.
“Some people try to paint everybody there as a criminal, and that's stupid,” Chrysanthemum Harrell, founder of UVM Mutual Aid, tells Levesque. “And some people also try to say that everybody there is an awesome person, or sort of deify our houseless neighbors to beyond a reasonable level. And that’s also wrong, because they're not special. They're just people. And people deserve to have their homes.”
“Anarchy in Vermont” is a short film by Daniel Levesque. See more films in our Made Here series.
