‘Crip Camp’ traces social movement origin By Lindsey Bahr

Golden Globes amend eligibility rules due to virus

If you’re looking for something truly inspirational to distract from the current state of things, Netflix’s “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution” might be just the ticket. This documentary focuses on an idyllic summer camp for kids and teens with disabilities in the Catskills in the early ‘70s that turned out to be a breeding ground for the modern disability rights movement.

Located just a short distance from Woodstock, Camp Jened in 1971 was a welcome and heady escape from the world for a group of kids with disabilities from polio to cerebral palsy. At home, when the law offered no protections or guarantees of equality, their disabilities governed their lives. The now-grown campers describe how they were excluded from many normal childhood activities and institutions, from sports to school. But at camp, they got to experience what it was like to just be young. They swam. They dated. They played sports. They goofed around. They debated. And they got to be around a vibrant group of people who saw a person first, not a disability.

Directors Nicole Newham and James LeBrecht, a Hollywood sound designer and mixer who was once a Jened camper himself, use nearly 40-year-old footage, photos and present-day interviews to bring the unique setting to life. Not only was the camp something to look forward to every year, it helped the kids see, as one puts it, that their lives could be better. That idea was enough to propel some of the campers into a lifetime of activism that resulted in real and positive changes for people living with disabilities.

Judy Heumann, who was a Jened camper and then counselor, would become a major figure in the fight for disability rights as she and others made their way to Berkeley and learned the art of the protest. At one in New York, a handful of people – many in wheelchairs – essentially shut down the city by blocking one intersection. At another, the “504 sit-in”, more than 100 people in the disabled community occupied the local offices of the Department of Health, Welfare and Education for over 25 days, demanding that the Carter Administration guarantee their civil rights.

It’s a necessary and sobering look at a not too recent past when this country treated people with disabilities as barely human. The examples of their systemic exclusion from everyday society, from the seemingly small (like being turned away from ice cream shops) to the major (like being overlooked for jobs), are appalling. One soundbite has Richard Nixon bemoaning the cost of installing ramps and elevators around public transportation centers, wondering just how many people it would benefit anyway. Another sickening clip from a news broadcast featuring a very young Geraldo Rivera shows the horrifying conditions at Willowbrook, a state-run institution in New York for people with disabilities.

Recounting

But what makes “Crip Camp”, which was produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, so wonderful are the people who attended that camp so many years ago and the joy you see in their faces recounting those youthful days. It’s a worthy story even without the coda of the fight for their civil rights. You never know where empowerment might stem from: Sometimes, it’s a hippie camp in the Catskills.

The Sundance debut for “Crip Camp” was the kind of festival reception filmmakers dream of. It was hailed as a jubilant crowd-pleaser, a likely Oscar contender, and most importantly, a seldom-seen and overdue big-screen moment for people with disabilities. The makers of “Crip Camp” believe the film can be its own galvanizing moment.

“I hope this film will ignite other stories,” said Heumann, who joined LeBrecht and his fellow director, Nicole Newnham, for an interview in Park City, Utah, in January. “These stories are out there.”

A lot has changed in just two months. “Crip Camp” was to be released while much of the US is hunkered down at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. The filmmakers had a wide range of activities planned around the film’s release, many of which have had to be adapted or curtailed due to the pandemic.

Instead, the filmmakers are striving, from the confines of their Bay area homes, to turn planned community screenings virtual and develop educational materials for schools. But “Crip Camp” is also, in a way, suited to the times as a reprieve for housebound viewers. “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”, a Netflix release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “some language including sexual references.” Running time: 106 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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NEW YORK: The Golden Globes will accept movies submissions without a theatrical release for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Thursday.

The press association, which puts on the annual award show, said films that are first released on television or a streaming service will be eligible for January’s Globes. Usually, the Globes mandate that a film play for a week in a Los Angeles theater or on payper-view, as well as have an official screening for its voting members.

The press association said the eligibility change was temporary and would last from March 15 to April 30, “with this period subject to later review and extension.”

The Academy Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have yet to announce a similar move. The Oscars specify that a film must have a seven-day run in a commercial Los Angeles County theater with at least three screenings a day. That rule has for several years come under scrutiny because of the rise of streaming services that would sometimes prefer their films went straight to paying subscribers.

The film academy last week said it was “evaluating all aspects of this uncertain landscape.”

With most movie theaters closed nationwide – including all of those in Los Angeles – numerous films are forgoing a theatrical release and going straight to streaming or on-demand. On Wednesday, a film widely expected to contend for best documentary awards later this year – “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”, which won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival – premiered on Netflix after canceling its planned release in select theaters.

The 78th Golden Globes are to be hosted next year by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. (AP)