Right to Exist

Anderson, N. (Director). (2025). The Right to Exist. Collective Eye Films. 78 mins. The Right to Exist is an emotional documentary that takes the audience through a series of personal narratives to share the story of Camp Resolution, a large homeless camp. Camp Resolution was a unique case study of 52 residents in Sacramento, California who lived on city property but was widely governed by themselves. The film shares data to challenge popular narratives about the unhomed. Director Nick Anderson includes a wide variety of interviewees to inform the audience, including key political figures such as social workers, the mayor and city council, and founders and residents of Camp Resolution. The diversity of interviewees allows for a robust narrative of the complex nature of homelessness. While the film includes footage of interviews from people with different opinions on how Camp Resolution should proceed, this account does sway toward one side of the complex issue. Since the documentary mostly follows a Professor of Social Work at CSU Sacramento as he gets to know the people in Camp Resolution, the director’s own opinions can be assumed to mimic that of the professor’s. The film includes a myriad of statistics that will be most applicable to classes or researchers in the fields of social work, economics, law and political science. The film introduces economic principles such as housing justice, service resistance, social capital, policy writing and the criminalization of existing. Courses that discuss such concepts will find this documentary helpful in giving practical examples of what these abstract ideas can look like in real life. Additionally, the constant flux of local, state and federal rulings is shown to be an extra layer of difficulty and frustration for those without homes. Librarians and professors can take advantage of these examples to guide student discussions centered on tough political topics. By including footage of sweeps where police and heavy machinery throw all remaining belongings in the trash (including important legal documents needed for finding work), the director uses the element of pathos to garner sympathy from the audience. Subtitles are accurate and the pace of the film with natural chapter breaks is suitable for use in higher education classrooms. The documentary references tough topics such as mental health, substance abuse, animal abuse and physical assault, while imagery shown on screen depicts a large police force sweeping the camp after eviction. While violence is not explicitly shown or discussed in great detail, the emotion and occasional foul language associated with Camp residents’ individual stories could be triggering for those with a personal history of trauma. The film is dedicated to the five individuals who did not survive the displacement after the final sweep of Camp Resolution, which can be an emotional scene to watch. However, the overall narrative remains positive, revealing the unsheltered community crisis to be more than a simple issue of physical space. The Right to Exist emphasizes the value of basic human rights and the importance of found community.