Crip Camp: a Disability Revolution

A stone’s throw from Woodstock, in the Catskills, Camp Jened welcomed hundreds of young disabled people every summer from 1971 to 1977. James LeBrecht, a former guest at the camp and co-director of the documentary produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, calls it “A summer camp for the disabled run by hippies”. Featuring archive footage and testimonials, the film describes not only baseball games, dating and life in the community but also conversations about disability and difficulties encountered in daily life. Camp Jened became a place of emancipation and inspiration and gradually turned into a political forum. In the 1970s and 1980s, following on from the Civil Rights movement, many people who stayed at the camp took part in the struggle for disabled rights across the US by holding demos, sit-ins and hunger strikes. The film features heartwarming and funny testimonials from the young people who were later to become committed disabled activists.