Truth Be Told

Most people think of Vermont as one of America's most progressive states. What far fewer know is that for much of the 20th century, Vermont was also a center of eugenics — a state whose institutions surveilled, institutionalized, and forcibly sterilized Abenaki, French-Canadian, disabled, and other communities deemed "undesirable." Many survivors still live in Vermont today, carrying histories that have never been officially acknowledged.
That is beginning to change.

Truth Be Told is a feature-length documentary following the Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission — one of only a handful of government-sanctioned truth processes in United States history. For the first time, Vermonters who survived state-sanctioned discrimination are breaking decades of silence, offering testimony that is being heard, recorded, and placed into the official record.

Filmmaker Van Dora Williams has secured rare, exclusive access to document this process as it unfolds — capturing both the courage it takes to speak and the weight of what it means to finally be heard.

Your support helps ensure this history is preserved — and that the people who lived it are not forgotten.