Netflix released a trailer clip from Crip Camp, the documentary about Camp Jened, a camp for disabled teens in the 1970s that shaped the future of the disability-rights movement. Crip Camp world premiered as the opening-night film in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and will hit the streaming service in March.
Directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht (a former camper himself), the documentary is executive produced by Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp “for the handicapped” in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and makeout sessions awaiting everyone, and campers who felt fulfilled as human beings. Their bonds endured as they migrated West to Berkeley, California — a promised land for a growing and diverse disability community — where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption and unity might secure life-changing accessibility for millions. Crip Camp premieres at Sundance on January 23, 2020, coming soon to Netflix