94 Time April 6–13, 2020REVIEW
A camp for the disabled
that changed the world
By Stephanie ZacharekAmong people of All Ages TodAy, There’s A sense ThAT
hippies were a phenomenon of the past, a group of idealis-
tic people who agitated for change and then faded into the
ether as grownup responsibilities, like work and family, took
over. But Crip Camp, a documentary by Nicole Newnham and
Jim LeBrecht— released under Barack and Michelle Obama’s
Higher Ground umbrella—suggests that in some areas their
influence has been much more profound. The movie shows
how a group of activists with disabilities pressed for the sign-
ing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. But their
movement first took root years earlier, springing largely from
the influence of an upstate New York summer camp for dis-
abled teenagers called Camp Jened, in operation from the
earl y 1950s until 1977. As co-director LeBrecht , himself a
Jened attendee, puts it in the film, “This camp changed the
world, and nobody knows this story.”
Crip Camp combines archival and news footage with
present-day interviews to draw a direct line from Camp
Jened—run by hippies, so youthfully scruffy that they were
often indistinguishable from the teenage campers—to the
mobilization of the disability civil rights movement, and from
there to the passing of the ADA. Many who attended the camp
in the earl y 1970s felt that it was the first time they were seen,
heard and acknowledged as individuals. “It was so funky!”
says Jened camper Denise Jacobson, now a writer. “But it was
utopia when we were there. There was no outside world.”Much of Crip Camp
focuses on Judy Heu-
mann, a Camp Jened
counselor who went
on to become a leader
of the disability civil
rights movement.
We see her helming
a demonstration in
earl y-1 970s New York
City, as a small but
mighty group blocks
off an essential inter-
section by forming a
circle in their wheel-
chairs. After moving
to Berkeley, Heumann
spearheaded a 24-
day sit-in at the San
Francisco office of the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare, an act
of civil disobedience that helped to get
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973 signed into law. The film shows
activists during that sit-in sleeping on
floors , communicating in sign language,
engaging in a hunger strike. But that
victory wasn’t enough for Heumann.
Several years later, during a meeting
with fe llow activists, she expresses her
continued frustration: “I’m very tired of
being thankful for accessible toilets.”
Heumann’s continued leaders hip
helped secure the passing of the ADA.
But the triumphs of these activists is
made even sweeter by the footage of
them as very young people at Camp
Jened: in one scene, Heumann, as a vi-
brant 23-year-old, tries to get the camp-
ers to agree on what they’d like to make
for dinner. Veal Parmesan has been
ruled out; it’s too expensive. How about
lasagna? Grumbling fills the room.
What strikes you is not that many of
these young people are in wheelchairs,
as Heumann is. It’s their vitality, their
vociferousness in saying no, absolutely
no, even just to lasagna—the first step in
a fight for one yes after another.CRIP CAMP streams March 25 on NetflixTimeOff Movies‘
THERE
R E A L LY
HASN’T
BEEN A FILM
T H AT
RESETS THE
AT T I T U DE
OF SOCIETY
AROUND
DISABILITY
—JIM LEBRECHT,’
co-director, in the
Hollywood Reporter◁
A scene from Camp
Jened, where the
staffers were ofte n
indistinguishable
from the campersTMOVIES.indd 94 3/24/20 4:53 PM