OSCARS 2021: Crip Camp (2020)

Last year, Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions, won an Oscar for “American Factory.” While you can certainly debate the ethics behind a former president winning awards for producing a film, “American Factory” was excellent and absolutely earned that statue. The Obamas would, naturally, continue their partnership with Netflix for their next project. “Crip Camp” has also garnered an Oscar nomination. Yet, aside from these factoids, the two projects could not be more different. 

“Crip Camp” begins at Camp Jened in 1971. Jened was a camp run by a self-described group of hippies for disabled youths. Mostly teenagers, the disabled youths were allowed to spend time with people like them and forge a community. Out of Camp Jened arose Judith Heumann and other disabled people who realized modern society was not designed to accommodate them. Heumann would lead the disabilities rights movement. A wave of activism, including multiple sit-in protests, would finally begin to get legislation passed. But not without a fight. 

“Crip Camp” is a documentary essentially built upon two things. First is a series of talking head interviews, done recently. The second of which is archive footage from the seventies, when Camp Jened was still operational. These are the parts of “Crip Camp” that is really interesting. We see disabled youths, relaxing and goofing around. They play guitar, sing songs, and bang on metal folding chairs. They chat casually among themselves, discussing their experiences as disabled people. They talk about the frustrations they feel, of being unable to depend solely on themselves. One of the girls, with cerebral palsy, talks about her lack of privacy, which is then characterized as a basic human right.

What's most valuable about these moments, and the others like them, is how they force the viewer to consider disabled people as... People, like anyone else. The kids at the camps, despite the challenges they face, are still teenager. They're horny, talking frankly about dating and making-out and sex. One of the film's funniest moment is when an activist with C.P. talks about how proud she was when a doctor thought she might have gonorrhea. Later on, we see vintage footage of another camp-goer becoming a member of the New York punk scene, dressing in drag and doing a striptease. When pop culture so frequently depicts the disabled as individuals characterized only by their disabilities, it's important to see their basic humanity – to be sexual and funny and theatrical – honored. 

Despite the title, “Crip Camp” is not focused solely on the camp. In fact, in its second half, the focus turns entirely to the disability rights movement that arose out of the camp. This is a compelling story in its own right. Hearing about the grass roots element of the movement, how disabled people from all over the country gathered in D.C. and New York to draw attention to their plight. An anecdote about the local Black Panthers chapter rushing in to help deliver food was especially interesting. (This award season is a big one for the Black Panthers.)  Yet these segments of the film do, sometimes, feel like a simple collection of facts. “Crip Camp” looses sight of the human element a little bit in its last third. 

I totally understand why directors Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht turn their focus to the activism in the second half. It's an important story and one that absolutely needs to be told. The fight goes on too. Yet the archive footage, that really gives us an intimate peek at the lives of these interesting people, was the part of the film that most captured my heart. The proper emotional climax of the film is when two of the documentary's star characters return to the former site of the camp. “Crip Camp” is most effective when letting its cast live, breath, and be their selves. [7/10]