Sundance Film Festival 2020 Day 1A - Crip Camp

Went to Sundance… day by day, movie by movie…

I like to go into Sundance movies with very little idea of what I am going to see. I thought this was going to be a sweet, sentimental movie about a camp for crippled children - I mean, how much more sentimental could you possibly get. Alicia mentioned it had Sundance Buzz. Okay, maybe… Boy, was I wrong!

Blurb: “No one at Camp Jened could’ve imagined that those summers in the woods together would be the beginnings of a revolution. Just down the road from Woodstock, Camp Jened was a camp for disabled teens. Directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht (a former Jened camper himself) deliver a rousing film about a group of campers turned activists who shaped the future of the disability-rights movement and changed accessibility legislation for everyone.”

WHAT an amazing film! Let me say at the top, excellent amazing job of film-making / story-telling. I laughed, I cried, I… well, mostly I cried more, both good and bad crying. I cry for heroes. For people being courageous and doing amazing things, so for this movie I cried a LOT! Heck, I am going to cry for the next 15 minutes writing this up. (I am a softy, bien sur!)

These kids (young adults, or older teens mostly) went to this camp in the Catskills. Most of the kids from New York. Da CITY! This camp at first, earlier, was a conventional camp for kids in wheelchairs, but it ran down, and at this point was a camp run by hippies. And this was good.

For these kids, this was the FIRST time in their lives they were treated as PEOPLE! Before, they were always treated as a problem. Something to be dealt with. Here, they were just people that were somewhat different. And, they connected with each other, people who were somewhat different is a wide variety of ways. This was one generation (or less) from people like them being discarded to “institutions”, meaning the actual physical equivalent to concentration camps. (Visuals you do not want to see.)

They did the hippie camp thing. They sang. They had fun. They played softball. They had romances. They kissed for the first time. They talked to people who understood them… they were treated as actual human beings.

Then they went home, back the usual bullshit. Bullshit with which they could no longer put. They did not. They became a generation of activists. yada yada yada. And I gotta tell you, with a good leader, when you do a sit-in with most peeps in wheelchairs and cameras rolling, arresting the demonstrators is NOT an option. Heck, they got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Under the Carter administration, it was a battle of wills, and guess who was immovable. Which is why we have the ADA.

Aside: I love the scene in California when the Black Panthers show up to provide meals. “Hey, we’re here for ALL oppressed people.” Right ON!

Aside2: A black guy from Mississippi came up to be a counselor. First time HE was treated as a person too. And he returned to bullshit with which he would not put up, too.

This is an awesome movie. Supported by NETFLIX. Might do a theatrical first, but you will be able to see it on Netflix. Yeah! See it in a theater if you can, with a bunch of people in wheelchairs. But see it! Mind Expanding. Empathy Expanding.

“Filled with the spirit, music, and humor of the era, Newnham and LeBrecht speak firsthand to the seeds of empowerment that were planted at Camp Jened. Incredible camp footage from 1971 captures how the campers were finally seen beyond their disabilities. Milestones in the disability-rights movement intersect with LeBrecht’s personal story and the stories of several Camp Jened alums, including then-counselor Judy Heumann. Heumann goes on to drive the effort for disability rights, playing an indispensable role in historic protests leading to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Crip Camp shines a bright light on a paramount and overlooked civil-rights battle, emboldening us to come together and spark great change.”