New to Netflix is an award-winning documentary centred around the origins of the disability rights movement in the US.
‘Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution’ is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, down the road from Woodstock and was produced by former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
This ‘trip of a lifetime’ is based in a barebones, hippy summer camp for teenagers with disabilities. The camp brought together a group of people who would be pivotal in seeking civil rights protections for people with disabilities.
Using the music of the time, this compelling, good-feel film takes viewers inside a revolutionary era that from moves from oppression to empowerment and from infantilization to freedom, tracing the journeys of the campers up to the present day.
The feature-length documentary is told from the point of view of former camper and co-director Jim LeBrecht, a sound engineer who was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. The film uses footage taken at Camp Jened near Woodstock, NY, and follows the story of how many of the camp’s alumni were instrumental in the protests that led to passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I think our film is a film that many in the disabled community have been waiting for,” LeBrecht said. “It is a watershed film about the disabled experience, one that confronts stigma and fear around disability, and leaves you with a new perspective, love and respec . That’s the hope, anyway.”
Crip Camp won the US Documentary Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
Having signed a multi-year deal with Netflix to produce films and series last year, the Obamas have more projects ‘on the boil’.
“Crip Camp is both a gripping look at the history of the disability rights movement and a timely call to action, urging us to explore our own duty to fight for the dignity of all people,” Obama said.
See Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution on Netflix.