A new documentary on Netflix called "Crip Camp" looks at an historic summer camp for the disabled community that launched a generation of activists. Transcript:A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever Transcript:Anti-Social Network B Transcript:Bonjour Bonquisha C Transcript:Camp Campbell Wants YOU! Film director Jim LeBrecht, a former camper himself, opens the movie with footage of his childhood, sharing how isolated he felt from life as a child and as an adult. All rights reserved. I think that one of the definitions of privilege is that, you know, social space is yours for the taking. Heumann started trying to make it be. Part of what makes Crip Camp so powerful, therefore, is the sheer quantity of archival footage. Please check your inbox to confirm. Camp Jened, a . Sport your love for the pride and joy seen in Crip Camp with the official Crip Camp merchandise! And as the ripples of the impact of that liberatory experience grow, the movement grows and the community grows with it. The impact campaigns goal was to use the film as leverage to create change for people with disabilities. And certainly, when I got there, in the early '70s, indeed it truly was what Denise says, a utopia. The difficulty of forming a union was central, but so was the disconnect between American and Chinese cultures, with Americans not always coming out on top. [11] The film was set to be released in a limited release that same day, but the theatrical release was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, you know, let's frame it not as this medical decline, but this evolution of who we are as people. With a little bit of information, Nicole set out to try to see if we could figure out who these people were, and, you know, lo and behold, after three months of searching Nicole found, in the back of a digitized magazine for video makers in the time an advertisement for a videotape of the crab epidemic at Camp Jened, when they had the camp by the People's Video Theater. And, you know, as the pandemic happened and then, you know, we saw the upswell of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, it seemed like sort of striking that this story from 1977 was kind of meeting our moment of today in such a powerful way, that we really felt like that was true, that you can see that the seeds of this kind of community across difference that is created at the camp, and then how that very philosophy and kind of, you know, way of being became the kind of secret weapon, or really power that provoked and built up a change down the road. Read the Crip Camp: The Official Virtual Experience camp memory scrapbook. The images on screen are home movies of an astonishingly active little boy zooming up and down stairs using just his arms, riding in a toy Thunderbird, later attending public schools. And I think that we felt that that was a really valuable lesson for the particular time that we find ourselves in. Camp Jened, in upstate New York, was the epicenter of a disability rights movement that led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Disability rights aren't normally featured in high school history books and often don't get written down at all. MS. HORNADAY: Fascinating. MS. NEWNHAM: You know, this issue that you raise, it was probably the most important thing for us to get right in the film, and we kind of ended up talking about how there were like these two tractor ruts that people's brains go into around disability. Youve got some Janning to do! Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp for the handicapped (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, exploded those confines. And if wheelchairs couldn't get around New York City, well, Heumann was going to make sure no one else could. Sunday Morning "Crip Camp" and the disability rights movement March 14, 2021 / 9:26 AM / CBS News It is an unexpected sight: all kinds of kids with all kinds of disabilities at summer camp. And the other thing, something she points out but that this film expresses beautifully, is the organic intersectionality of the disability rights movement, to use a term that we would use today but maybe not so much them. The Earth wasnt solid beneath them. That footage (shot by a collective called the Peoples Video Theater) features myriad campers and counselors, then and now. I doubt you will either. Their beautiful feelings of acceptance and connection lay the foundation for the grueling struggle to come. Simply, Califano appears to lose his nerve in the face of intense lobbying by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which, by the way, would like yall not to shelter in place from the coronavirus much longer) and in the face of demonstrations led by Heumann and others takes the cowards path and hides away. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics Watch on. The documentary "Crip Camp" makes the case that one particular camp impacted the lives not only of the young people there but the culture at large, through the fight for disability rights.. Anne Azzi Davenport, Rebecca Oh Things you buy through our links may earnVox Mediaa commission. The Wagner opera returns to the Met for the first time in 17 years. Oh my gosh, you are using the C-word. The 70s press is heard referring to it as an occupying army of cripples, but theres nothing crippled about the people we see who shut down the HEW (the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare) offices for weeks. In the 1970s, disabled teenagers faced a world of social exclusion, isolation, even institutionalization. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. 8 Practical Tips to Maximize Efficiency in Real Estate Investing In Crip Camp, the narrative is of overcoming the suffering caused by a society that refuses to include us in everyday life. It is a natural progression in life, and my gosh, so many of us think that this is our special power. Today it will just be me talking at you for a while, which is awkward for me but what is a podcast if not awkward? I just feel like these people are crazy, I mean, in a good way. But Crip Camp, a new documentary on Netflix, offers a new glimpse into Heumann and the history of the disability rights movement that is raucous, joyous, and even sometimes shocking. The impact campaign team used an intersectional lens to encourage people to think of disability as a social justice issue, develop emerging leaders, and create long-lasting partnerships with like-minded organizations. It was incredible, actually. So, it is an exciting conversation and I just hope we don't forget the learnings that we had this year. Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix have broken up after he allegedly cheated on her with Raquel Leviss. Disability rights at the center of 'Crip Camp' Crip Camp tells the story of the civil rights struggle for disability rights, a social justice movement that has largely been left out of the history books.. The website's critics consensus reads: "As entertaining as it is inspiring, Crip Camp uses one group's remarkable story to highlight hope for the future and the power of community. Nicole, how critical do you think intersectionality was to the success of the disability rights movement? ", Camp Jened, in the Catskills, turned out to exactly the way LeBrecht just described it: "The wild thing is that this camp changed the world, and nobody knows this story. There, I wasn't different. Heumann was a born organizer, who would give that side of herself wider range when camp was over for the summer. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. [5][6], The idea to make the film about Camp Jened started "with an off-hand comment at lunch. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Crip Camp, which was an opening-night selection at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, is part of Barack and Michelle Obama's slate of Netflix programming via their production company Higher Ground . Ke Huy Quan Continues His Winning Streak at the Independent Spirit Awards. And when laws got passed, they often got vetoed for being too expensive. Watch offline. Crip Camp shares with insight, clarity, humor, and beauty the experiences of one group of disabled young people and their journey to activism and adulthood, and in doing so, provides an opportunity for all to delve into the rich and complicated history of disability activism, culture, and history. I had this memory of this group of hippie videographers showing up at camp, and then, in fact, one day that handed me the camera, and I did a tour of the camp. Well, that is it, an optimistic note to end on. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. "We decided we were going to sit down in the street and we were going to stop traffic," she says in the film. MS. HORNADAY: You know, it is stunning to think that this was a camp that was founded as far back as 1951. But it was a product of its time. Skip to primary navigation; . It was a weekly summer camp all summer for 16 Sundays, that really did have a lot of the elements of the community of Camp Jened, and actually built capacity for the disability rights movement in the middle of the pandemic, and now is being kind of lauded as an example of how you can make a virtual environment really inclusive. MS. HORNADAY: It works beautifully. It was very hard for us to figure out how to tell this really complicated kind of story about how does a movement push legislation forward in a way that was really digestible but also really historically accurate. This story was edited for radio by Nina Gregory and adapted for the Web by Petra Mayer. Dont miss reporting and analysis from the Hill and the White House. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and make-out sessions awaiting everyone, and campers experienced liberation and full inclusion as human beings. The goal of this curriculum is to extend the knowledge and understanding of disability and of disabled people offered in the film Crip Camp. She would go on to become a leading disability rights activist. It was released on March 25, 2020, by Netflix and received acclaim from critics. Netflix We found that one of them, Howard Gutstadt, just lived across the bay, in San Francisco. And our history dies with us. The film . https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/it-was-like-freedom-how-a-camp-for-disabled-children-changed-lives, A Brief But Spectacular take on chronic illness, NBCUniversal vows auditions for actors with disabilities, How Medicare can be used for people with disabilities. (The film is also directed by Nicole Newnham.) It was the longest and most successful of synchronous rallies in other cities, a story beyond the film's scope. So, then I got lucky enough one day that Jim decided to pitch me on, you know, trying to make films about disability from that point of view and films that would authentically relate experience. When Crip Camp leaves Jened at the 40-minute mark, it follows Heumann and several other campers to San Francisco, the site of the seminal disability rights demonstration for Section 504 of the Civil Rights Act. Many of those campers went on to become leaders . So, it is fascinating to me that we sort of get what we need, in this kind of generational way sometimes, from the culture. Wouldn't it be great if this $2-, $3-trillion-dollar package that President Biden is pushing forward now included some money to renovate theaters so that people with disabilities can easily be on stage and work behind the set, in backstage also? Crip Camp, a newly Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary, examines the origins of a human rights movement. Crip Camp has a more conventional trajectory, but it still goes to an unexpected place. Her story is one of several central to "Crip Camp: A Disability Revolutionary," a rousing and rare look at the . There was no Braille on elevator buttons. The fact of the matter is, is that because you may not see us working side by side on a set or in front of the camera doesn't mean we don't exist. You can find her work in Vox, The Nation, and the Washington Post, among other outlets. 'Crip Camp': A transformative experience for youngsters with disabilities 1 of 12 For young people who were used to the world seeing them as incapable and unworthy, the experience was. MR. LeBRECHT: That's a really wonderful question. The goal of "Crip Camp" is to break down some of the fear and mystery around disability, and tell the story of how the disability rights struggle began and continues today, explained LeBrecht and Newnham. The film, from the production company of Barack and Michelle Obama, is vying for an Oscar this Sunday. Watch all you want. or read the transcripts instead. And please keep tuning in for our Oscar Spotlight. They seem excited when the camp is infested with gonorrhea because that means two people somewhere were bumping private parts, which is what so-called normal teens were doing in those heady times. I'm Ann Hornaday, The. Due to the realities of disability and disabled life, many of us die young. is that the neolibs threw almost as many monkey wrenches into the disability-rights machine than big-business conservatives. Judy just opened up my mind about the fact that, oh, my gosh, we can actually fight back? Crip Camp is a useful reminder that while Jimmy Carter might be our greatest ex-president, he was a miserable prick toward the end of his term. Offscreen, he was one himself. Why cant the real world be this accessible to them? As Lionel Je Woodyard, a former counselor from Alabama, explains in the documentary, You wouldnt be picked to be on a team back home, but at Jened, you had to go up to bat. And this movie just shows us, in such concrete ways, how having a social space that you can claim for your own is just absolutely essential in terms of personal development and political development. It begins in 1971 in a Catskills summer camp, where in period footage we observe the elation of teen and 20-something cripples (a word still used in 1971) whove never before had the freedom to shed their defenses. The disabled unemployment rate is still high, and on a much more basic level, many buildings still dont have ramps. The . The film follows former campers who moved to California's Bay Area and built a flourishing community. This documentary proves we can tell human stories about disabled people and our lives. This text may not be in its final form and . It features interviews with former campers and counselors. To be clear, justice has not yet been achieved. Which was different from life back at home? Now that Meredith is gone, it is business as usual at Grey Sloan Memorial. And we both remember this day where we got this email, and he said, "Yeah, we have this footage, and we have got 5 1/2 hours of it.". Watch trailers & learn more. Crip Camp follows the crooked path of these disability rights leaders from the woods of upstate New York to a triumph on the White House lawn. Downloads available on all plans except Basic with adverts. The occasional narrator and co-director (with Nicole Newnham) is Jim LeBrecht, who was born with spina bifida but decided early in life to hurl himself at every challenge. [7] LeBrecht was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair to get around. From a 1970s-inspired tie-dye t-shirt to a durable canvas tote bag to a pocket reusable straw, there is something for everybody. [1] And it was this kind of gentle questioning that kind of pushed us to figure out, you know, some way to do it, and we ended up being able to use this old audio recording and splice together. No, thats not strictly true thats my empowerment-speak. Unions throw in their lot with demonstrators, along with the Black Panthers and a local lesbian bar, but the enemy of 504 isnt Nixon or Reagan (although neither comes off well) but HEW secretary under Jimmy Carter Joseph Califano, who was at Lyndon Johnsons side in the creation of the 60s Great Society. You didn't feel like people were staring at you. And through those stories, we can show both how far weve come and where we must go next. Outgoing, boisterous with friends and in 1971, about to start his first year of high school. This is from Rena Strober of California, and this is for Jim, Jim who has become like, as we have said, a really accomplished sound designer, especially in the theater. When Jimmy says "changed the world," he doesn't mean just for him, or even for him and the other campers, though at first their world is the one that gets rocked. You knew you were really different. The wild thing is that this camp changed the world, and nobody knows this story. We were questioning everything, all these different liberation movements, and, you know, why not us? I mean, do you remember any specific feedback or advice that they gave? ", At Camp Jened, previously marginalized campers could experience a full life including kissing. "Crip Camp" starts with the fun but shifts to the fuss, focusing on former counselor Judy Heumann and her fellow activists, a handful of whom had attended Camp Jened. A collective called People's Video Theatre was capturing all this in black and white kids enjoying the freedom to do things they couldn't usually do put themselves out there, complain about their folks being overprotective, and most of all, run the show themselves. Their bonds endured as many migrated West to Berkeley, California a hotbed ofactivism where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions. So, Nicole, specifically--oh, go ahead, Jim. How Tyrel Jackson Williams Brought TikTok Cringe to, Its sort of a newer version of the L.A. actor ride that Kyle is on the first two seasons, but its worse.. What I believe is that the entertainment industry needs to really embrace us as part of their diversity and inclusion efforts and apply the same mentorships and opportunities for people within the community to establish and cultivate their careers. HAPPY NEW YEAR ! From the outset, Crip Camp cuts through any anti-boomer cynicism you might have. And we wound up being able to leave a message for him--he was a board member at an anarchist bookstore in San Francisco, which all makes sense to me. And that, says Jim Lebrecht, an attendee born with spina bifida, made all the difference. On March 25 Netflix released Crip Camp, a documentary that dives into the wild lives of disabled teens who grapple with isolation, find love at a summer camp, build community, and grow into fierce advocates for equality. As Judy Heumann says in some of the archival footage, disabled people are often cast as asexual objects, rather than full, sexual people. And one of them is the inspiring thing and the other is the tragic thing. That is a handicapped parking spot. One boy with cerebral palsy remembers a female counselor teaching him to kiss. Of course, you made "The Rape of Europa" about the theft and destruction of European works of art during World War II. The disabled. And "liberation" is exactly the world. We want to hear what you THINK. In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Crimp Camp provides a snapshot of the disability rights movement through the lens of Camp Jened, a summer camp for disabled children and teenagers that opened in upstate New York in 1951. . A warning: You may not want to watch Crip Camp with young children. I want to thank both of you so very much for joining us today and for helping introduce our audience to "Crip Camp.". So, I figured, OK, we're going to have to spend the night. According to its website, Jened was created by the families of children with cerebral palsy. This article was published more than1 year ago. The best musical instrument is a love triangle. Patti Smolian If you want to marvel at human ingenuity, perseverance and triumph while youre in quarantine, Crip Camp has you covered, whether you have a disability or not. Yes. Today I am speaking with Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht, co-directors of Crip Camp: The Disability Revolution, a fascinating film and one of those nominees. Many Jened campers went on to become leaders in the disability rights movement. Their joyous laughter, their tenacity, their creative ways of supporting each other across disabilities will lift your spirits. It was Ted Kennedy who carried the ball forward as he would when the even more firmly neoliberal Clinton administration moved into the executive branch. You know, you don't want to teeter into being patronizing or condescending. But, basically, with the one street, we were able to shut the city down. Their own film, says Newnham, aims to open a window for a new audience. As, one hopes, it is everywhere else". Among his signature works at the NewsHour: a multi-year series, Culture at Risk, about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHours online Art Beat; and hosting the monthly book club, Now Read This, a collaboration with The New York Times. They werent beaten or shot at like demonstrators at Selma, but they came from a different place. Crip Camp, the new documentary from Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions, is a story of political revolution wrapped in tale of personal triumph. In "Crip Camp," the narrative is of overcoming the suffering caused by a society that refuses to include us in everyday life. Crip Camp Transcript MS. HORNADAY: So, Jim, put us in the room. The victory paved the way for 1990's Americans With Disabilities Act. Several took part in a harrowing 1977 sit-in in San Francisco to demand federal regulations guaranteeing civil rights for the disabled. All Rights Reserved. But let's watch a clip that shows how that protest began. And so, as we have seen with the Americans with Disabilities Act, those reforms helped us all, and we are grateful for those every day. Privacy Policy and Crip Camp, a new documentary on Netflix, raucous, joyous, and even sometimes shocking, Based in the Catskills, Camp Jened operated from 1951 to 1977, before the Americans with Disabilities Act, shipped off to state institutions like Willowbrook. [15] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian wrote, "this impactful film shines a light on a forgotten fight for equality". Summaries. "Apparently I had different plans.". 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crip camp transcript