crip camp transcript crip camp transcript

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. It is not even questioned. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. Its a shame that this Netflix movie cant be seen with a large, boisterous audience (once were virus-free, I mean), because the first third makes you want to dance and light up a joint. But Camp Jened was an unusual camp for young people with a wide range of disabilities. Califanos eventual embrace of 504 is the result of an irony thats both exhilarating and queasy-making: A dogged reporter for the San Francisco ABC affiliate named Evan White got his stories about the local demonstration on national air only because of a TV technician strike that left the scabs at the network short of material. So, we made an effort to get our fundraising trailer in front of Priya Swaminathan, who had just been hired to run Higher Ground. Jeffrey Brown has our look for our arts and culture series, Canvas. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. It is a much-needed reminder that Civil Rights must . [15] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian wrote, "this impactful film shines a light on a forgotten fight for equality". MS. HORNADAY: Very well said. The documentary "Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution," due Wednesday on Netflix after winning accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, drops viewers directly into the lives of disabled . Netflix Nicole, this documentary is a production of Higher Ground, of course, which is Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company with Netflix. A review of the Netflix documentary 'Crip Camp' on the disability movement in the 1970s that started at a summer camp and led by disabled people. Another central character is Judy Heumann, whose early roots as a leader of the movement demonstrate how youthful experiences in activism can shape a lifetime of progress and change. More Details. Because if you did that, sure enough we would have test screenings and we would see audience kind of slipping into that way of seeing disability. So is showing disabled people agitating for the right to participate in society. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. In photos, in archival news footage unsung heroes in a civil rights story that largely isn't in history books, but that Crip Camp establishes with an exhilarating flourish sure ought to be. 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. Trailer: Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. Tell us how it all began and what your memories are from that time. By the way, Steve is the other source of the R rating here, and I will leave you with that tantalizing little teaser. Netflix's "Crip Camp" delivers a message of radicalism and compassion that we all need right now This 1950-70s summer camp for disabled youth not provided a coming-of-age experience, but effected . Their joyous laughter, their tenacity, their creative ways of supporting each other across disabilities will lift your spirits. [7] LeBrecht was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair to get around. "[14] Justin Chang writing for Los Angeles Times said that "[the film] delivers an appreciably blunt message". signing up for national breaking news email alerts. In this passionate talk, writer and disability rights advocate Kings Floyd draws illustrates the personal costs of society's failure to implement accessible design, shedding light on the direct link between thoughtful infrastructure and an increased connection between friends, families and communities. And they could not have sustained their protest and pushed forward with the implementation of the first really significant disability civil rights legislation in this country had that food not been delivered. 14 hard-standing pitches for motor home. Transcript:A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever Transcript:Anti-Social Network B Transcript:Bonjour Bonquisha C Transcript:Camp Campbell Wants YOU! Yes. Several took part in a harrowing 1977 sit-in in San Francisco to demand federal regulations guaranteeing civil rights for the disabled. I want to play a clip and then come back to Jim, who was there, who was actually a participant. I know, I seem to have moved beyond the movies central characters, but thats whats so terrific about Crip Camp: It transcends its immediate subject and becomes an embrace of those counterculture ideals that weve allowed ourselves (with the help of propaganda from the other side) to become jaded about. And at that point we had a name of an organization. The camp was described as a free-spirited, loose camp for disabled teens. And one of them is the inspiring thing and the other is the tragic thing. 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.. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The second half of the film chronicles the tenacity that was needed to win battles in one administration, then re-win them in the next, for almost two decades until the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In truth, they have crushing obstacles, which is why the later sight of them setting aside their wheelchairs and hauling themselves up the steps of the nations capital is so jaw-dropping. 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. Its U.S. representative from California Phillip Burton, who goes after Eidenberg and drags him back definitely a roof-raising moment if you were to see this in a theater. The film follows former campers who moved to California's Bay Area and built a flourishing community. I am so gratified and grateful for all the home movies that were taken at Camp Jened. 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. From the outset, Crip Camp cuts through any anti-boomer cynicism you might have. Each summer, about 120 campers moved in for four to eight weeks. While Crip Camp follows teens who attended the Hunter, NY camp in the early 1970's, the summer camp actually ran from the 1950s until 1977. He said his surgery was a success, but he needs time to heal before he can tour again. Offscreen, he was one himself. Watch all you want. I had a sense of freedom there and acceptance and joy that I rarely ever had outside of that camp. And in reality, it was a way for us very quickly to kind of say, "Look, this is not your average, aww, what an incredible, inspiring story." Next week we will continue the series with discussions about the documentaries, Time and The Mole Agent. So, head to WashingtonPostLive.com to find out more. 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? [1] Crip Camp is particularly eye opening in its first act. And it is so interesting to me that it's at the Oscars this year, alongside movies like "Trial of Chicago 7" and "Judas and the Black Messiah," that also get, especially "Judas and the Black Messiah," gets to that same intersectionality that Fred Hampton was practicing before his life was ended prematurely. That footage (shot by a collective called the Peoples Video Theater) features myriad campers and counselors, then and now. As an able-bodied individual, I take for granted pretty much every aspect of my daily life. The disability history of Crip Camp is used as a starting point from which to learn about and see oneself as part of disability history, community, culture, and activism in the present day. "Crip Camp" vies for an Oscar for best documentary this Sunday. I mean, especially the footage from the sit-in, is really due to all of us digging around, finding things. I want to thank both of you so very much for joining us today and for helping introduce our audience to "Crip Camp.". Crip camp started at Camp Jened in 1971, a New York summer camp. "We decided we were going to sit down in the street and we were going to stop traffic," she says in the film. In April 1977, Heumann . hide caption. Crip Camp, a newly Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary, examines the origins of a human rights movement. 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. But then you have all of this fabulous footage from other events. It was just like an editing feat that kind of--you know, if President Obama wants it, then we will make it happen, you know. Thank you. That's when people started really feeling like we couldn't leave, because no one knew what we were talking about, but we knew that they were trying to rescind the regulations. So, the fact that he was saying, "This may be connected to the Civil Rights Movement, this profound experience of liberation that I and my friends had," was really intriguing. Lacing together the story with ample rock music and a collage of sober-eyed recollections, the best moments of "Crip Camp" involve campers recalling the nuances of those formative years. (She would let me have that joke, I know she would.) During his career, the prolific actor inhabited an array of troubled characters. Power, not pity is a longtime disability rights slogan encapsulated by the spirit of Camp Jened. You didn't feel like you were a burden. Among the key protagonists, Judy Heumann, a camp counselor who'd contracted polio as a child. Alas, to the real world, they barely exist. I didnt laugh. I just feel like these people are crazy, I mean, in a good way. She also was featured in the 2020 documentary film, "Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution," which highlighted Camp Jened, a summer camp Heumann attended that helped spark the disability rights . The first person we meet is Berkeley Rep sound designer Jimmy LeBrecht, who's climbing above the theater's stage without the use of his legs. Many years later, Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham have made "Crip Camp," a documentary about Camp Jened and the larger disability rights movement. It then closed in 1977 due to financial difficulties, only to reopen again in a new location in Rock Hill, NY. Blog. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google And kind of filling that in, I think, enabled us to see something which otherwise we wouldn't be able to see, which is the impact of something very small and how it grows into something big. But with nearly all movie theaters closed, it's arriving instead on Netflix and it's a window on a revolution. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown. "They didn't think I was going to live more than a couple of hours," we hear him say. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution 2020 | Maturity Rating: R | 1h 48m | Political Documentaries A groundbreaking summer camp galvanizes a group of teens with disabilities to help build a movement, forging a new path toward greater equality. 8 Practical Tips to Maximize Efficiency in Real Estate Investing But there was this trust that I could say anything, and that if I felt like there was something that made me very uncomfortable that, you know, we would talk about it. And he immediately thought, because we were really early on in our process--we had the story mapped out and we had a fundraising trailer and we were finding footage and starting to assemble it--you know, he thought this could be perfect for them, because of the sort of shared values between the Obamas and our project, this idea of the importance of grassroots organizing, the capacity for young people to change the world, the idea that this is elevating a story from a marginalized community that needs to be told. That activism would culminate in the landmark 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, prohibiting discrimination based on disability and bringing changes to many aspects of American life. 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. Crip Camp Impact Campaign Anne Azzi Davenport is the Senior Coordinating Producer of CANVAS at PBS NewsHour. Sport your love for the pride and joy seen in Crip Camp with the official Crip Camp merchandise! Once again, I'm Ann Hornaday, and thank you for watching Washington Post Live. Due to the realities of disability and disabled life, many of us die young. Some still arent. This text may not be in its final form and . No one has known what shes thinking because no one has listened closely enough. I think it is still, to this day, the longest occupation of a Federal building, a sit-in at a Federal building. What drew you to the disability rights movement, or did it draw you? 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. And who you can expect to see performing and presenting. The protest that you are alluding to was this incredible occupation of a Federal building in San Francisco, which lasted for 25 days, 150 activists occupied the building. I'm Ann Hornaday, The. Those are really special. 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.". By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. We were questioning everything, all these different liberation movements, and, you know, why not us? . A handful of campers like Steve Hofmann are followed throughout the film, spotlighted in crowd scenes and demonstrations. Weve got romance, breakups, emotionally loaded dumplings this episode has a little bit of everything! The film . And, you know, I think that it worked because we had this incredible collaboration. The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. But frank discussion of disabled sexuality is itself important. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey? Shes the first person in the film to address the open sore that was Staten Islands Willowbrook, where the disabled were starved and neglected and which is shown in a 70s expos anchored by Geraldo Rivera, who appears to have once had his uses. Crip Camp shared 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. MR. LeBRECHT: Don't frame it as limitations. Part of what makes Crip Camp so powerful, therefore, is the sheer quantity of archival footage. or read the transcripts instead. And, you know, you will see more authentic films and theater projects like "Crip Camp" if our industries really embraced us and applied the same diversity and inclusion efforts that they have for other people. I dont remember the first time I met Judy Heumann, but Ive only ever known her as an omnipresent elder statesman of the disability rights movement. We are highlighting the five films nominated for Academy Awards for best documentary feature. After Dax Shepard asked her about her musical chairs relationship situation. We had some incredible archival research people, but we all dug in to really try to find this footage. Barack and Michelle Obama served as executive producers under their Higher Ground Productions banner. Down the road from Woodstock, a revolution blossomed at a ramshackle summer camp for teenagers with disabilities, transforming their lives and igniting a landmark movement. As she accepts her Someone to Watch award on stage. "This camp changed the world, and nobody knows this story." Produced by Michelle and Barack Obama, "Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution" is not your typical inspirational documentary.In my years in this business, I've seen a lot of manipulative documentaries that pull at the heartstringsso many that I've grown a little immune to them and downright annoyed by the ones that feel . (The film is also directed by Nicole Newnham.) It was released on March 25, 2020, by Netflix and received acclaim from critics. They had been sheltered, sometimes thought a burden, and all too often disability had been their sole identity. Based in the Catskills, Camp Jened operated from 1951 to 1977 and served disabled people who werent welcome at mainstream summer camps. When we were there, there was no outside world. In my opinion, it should be illegal to use Buffalo Springfields For What its Worth in media about hippies and social change. 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. Summer camp in Upstate New York, 1971, fun and frolicking, a Woodstock era vibe. And I said, sign me up! MR. LeBRECHT: Yeah. So, I hope that the viewers will take these lessons to heart. So, you know, the trust and support of everybody really made a big difference. In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Crip Camp has a more conventional trajectory, but it still goes to an unexpected place. There are also a few missteps. And the fact that this did come out in pandemic year, Nicole, where accessibility, in many ways, through things like Zoom, like what we are doing today, you know, it has opened up accessibilities to some programs to more people. According to its website, Jened was created by the families of children with cerebral palsy. And the structure that we thought of was like this camp experience of liberation was like a stone thrown in a pond. ", At Camp Jened, previously marginalized campers could experience a full life including kissing. Deadhead Al Levy looks and sounds like the shaggy brainiacs who changed my life in college. I remember Corbett, who you see in the film, saying to me, "Hey, Jim. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. 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. Many Jened campers went on to become leaders in the disability rights movement. And President Obama and Mrs. Obama themselves watched three cuts of our film and gave feedback. [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. Crip Camp opened the Sundance Film Festival two months ago, and it was supposed to arrive in theaters today. The moment is here, people have watched Crip Camp, people have responded, you have changed lives, created communities, accelerated movements, the Oscars are ahead of usin a pandemic. IE 11 is not supported. I would come in to mix a film with Jim--you know, he is a brilliant sound mixer in the Bay Area and all the documentary filmmakers here cherish the time when we get to bring our films in to his studio--and he would be playing, you know, an album by a disabled rapper, and he would be talking to me about his struggle to get access to, say, the filmmakers lodge at the Sundance Festival, which used to be up, you know, several flights of stairs. Summaries. But this documentary proves we can tell more human stories about disabled people and our lives. [17] Carlos Ros Espinosa of Human Rights Watch wrote, "The film made me realize the importance of building spaces for people with disabilities to organize". Jeffrey Brown No one at Camp Jened couldve imagined that those summers in the woods together would be the beginnings of a revolution. Crip Camp reminds us that, in America, nothing improves without massive sacrifice / A Netflix documentary explains how a camp for people with disabilities inspired an activist movement By. A former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama appointee, the word that best describes Heumann, if I had to pick one, would be dignified.. We cut off four streets.". Crip Camp was what the kids who went to Camp Jened in the 1960s and 70s called their summer paradise. 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. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a 2020 American documentary film directed, written and co-produced by Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht. I saw it as a culture, as a community. 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. Transcript: Oscar Spotlight: "Crip Camp" By Washington Post Live March 31, 2021 at 6:31 p.m. EDT Article This article is free to access. Their beautiful feelings of acceptance and connection lay the foundation for the grueling struggle to come. And I think that the hope is that there has been enough learning about the importance of accessibility that those things won't be taken away, you know, as vaccinations ramp up and things get back to "normal," but that we will have realized the importance of making these kinds of accommodations around accessibility in order for our workplaces, our communities, et cetera, to be truly inclusive. Do you think people's consciousnesses have been lifted a little bit over the last year? Of course, you made "The Rape of Europa" about the theft and destruction of European works of art during World War II. 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. MS. HORNADAY: Well, and, you know, you reminded me, when we were looking at the "Crip Camp" poster, waiting for this session to start, I think it has the distinction of being rated R, to which the great crab epidemic of whatever year it was [laughter]. And our history dies with us. At Camp Jened, the campers had seen what could be. Follow this story and more by signing up for national breaking news email alerts. And the idea was to try very hard to kind of go back and find those seminal moments that connected through these characters that you meet as a band of friends in summer camp. And please keep tuning in for our Oscar Spotlight. 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. 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. [7] Newnham said:[8]. [16] Peter Debruge writing for Variety said, "[the film] proves to be the most educational for those born into a post-ADA world, a world of self-opening doors and accessible bathroom stalls and ramps that take wheelchairs into consideration". 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.. [18] Katie Rife of The A.V. Heumann evidently hit the ground rolling. It's a badge of courage, sir. hide caption. The goal of this curriculum is to extend the knowledge and understanding of disability and of disabled people offered in the film Crip Camp. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a 2020 American documentary film directed, written and co-produced by Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht. Transcript: Oscar Spotlight: Crip Camp, Nancy Pelosi untethered: The former speaker revels in newfound freedom, For clues to U.S. politics, look to Chicago, Wisconsin on April 4, Biden told advisers he would let Congress block D.C. crime law. Crip Camp lives inside them and will now live in us. MS. HORNADAY: "Crip Camp," as you can probably discern from that clip, tells this incredible story of this amazing camp that we meet in the 1970s. Part of the revolutionary hippie spirit revolved around sexual freedom, and its not at all surprising that extended to the disabled teenagers at Camp Jened. Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza do not seem like a match made in action-comedy-chemistry heaven, but it somehow works. He went to Crip Camp its name is actually Camp Jened, located near Woodstock, New York and is seen in 71 footage exulting over his first girlfriend, but the film doesnt center on him. Some enunciate clearly, others struggle to be understood. Well, that is it, an optimistic note to end on. And even that idea of kind of like becoming and telling your own story, all of those things are embodied in our project. Why? In one scene, we see Judy Heumann organize the campers to cook a Wednesday night meal of lasagna. 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. And rather than me take on the project I said to Jim, "Why don't we direct this together, so the story can be told from your point of view," and we set about trying to figure out how. MS. HORNADAY: Brilliant. It was a revolution, and as told in Crip Camp by filmmakers Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht (the sound guy whose story started us off) it's a raucous odyssey filled with twists, setbacks, smart strategizing, and unlikely strokes of luck. With nearly 10,000 participants, Crip Camp 2020 showed the power of committing to accessibility for all. MS. HORNADAY: You know, I was going to say the same thing. I think that one of the definitions of privilege is that, you know, social space is yours for the taking. 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. 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. [5], Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "this indispensable documentary defines what it means to call a movie 'inspiring'. And then he sent me some pictures of Camp Jened, and I literally almost fell out of my chair, because I realized that Jened was this utopia, as Jim described it, that, you know, was the kind of thing that most of us have never even known existed, and it still doesn't exist today, you know. I must ask, though, both Michelle Obama and Barack Obama are such gifted storytellers in their own right. Netflix. When Judy Heumann one of the main subjects of the Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp was five years old in the early 1950s, her mother tried to register . The movie is both a profile of people who declared they would be no longer invisible and a celebration of the activist culture that supported and sustained them. 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. At Jened, disability was normal. So, I figured, OK, we're going to have to spend the night. Newnham told The Guardian, "then he completely blew my mind" explaining why he wanted to make this film. MS. NEWNHAM: They were really interested in sort of like--President Obama himself was really interested in the process of how did the actual legislation come about, you know. In the summer of 2020, the Crip Camp Impact Campaign hosted a 15 week virtual camp experience that featured trailblazing speakers from the disability community. While it is uplifting and educational, it is also a much hornier movie than one might expect from producers Barack and Michelle Obama.