Movie Reviews

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

"Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution" is a 2020 documentary by James LeBrecht (he is interviewed in the movie) and Nicole Newnham. It lasts 1h47.
This movie documents the fight to non-discmination of handicapped people in the United States, from the 50's to the 80's. The first part of the documentary takes place in Camp Jened (1951-1977, owned by hippies), a summer camp for handicapped young people in New York State. As the interviews and archive videos (a documentary crew called "People's Video Theater" was there for one summer in the 70's) depict it, it was a place where handicapped people could really be themselves, considered like humans, and come as close as possible to privacy and independence. The campers then talk about their lives at the time, the overprotectiveness of their parents, how the common people has a "disability hierarchy" in mind, how they are often forced to feel fear and shame... Then, the documentary takes a turn to deal with the actual disability activism of the time. Judith Hewman was the main figure of this movement. The movie goes over the Disability Act and how the section 504, about non-discrimination, took decades to be signed (1990, the fight started in the 60's). Many demonstrations and events are shown, but the film spends most time on the occupation of a political building in San Francisco (I couldn't find the name again...) by dozens of disabled people in hope to pass section 504. It was an absolutely incredible action, as these people who most often couldn't fully take care of themselves stayed for 25 days in a building all together, where running water was cut, food was scarse and mattresses were only brought towards the end. For example, the tetraplegics "had to be turned around at night so they wouldn't get muscle sores" (I don't know why, but this stuck with me). They received help from the Black Panther Party, the LGBT alliance, and some more neutral organization who supported their cause. Eventually, they sent a delegation to Washington DC and section 504 was passed! From then on, public buildings started to finally become accessible, discrimination for employment, housing and education went down... but the fight is never over, and the film still showed some images from other major events such as the Capitol Crawl of 1990. During the Civil Rights Movement and even today, disabled people were either taboo or forgotten. I like that a documentary was made about these really strong people. I had no idea about what they had to do to be recognized, that's not something you learn at school unfortunately... And there is no reason for them not to be treated like any other minority: all and all, there are 40 millions disabled people in the US today! I also wasn't aware of that number. If I have maybe one negative note about this documentary, is that it's sometimes hard to keep up with the dates. I like when documentary offer ample time-space anchors. Otherwise, some little details: I liked the original music for this movie, and appreciated how the interviewed people did not have to disclose their disability unless they wanted to bring it up.