Written in March 2025
Documentaries about disability often give me the “ick”, or leave me feeling weird in a bad way. I watched Tell Them You Love Me and was upset not only by the allegations of abuse, but by the assumption that a nonspeaking individuals do not have capacity, and whose agency was denied to them.
Crip Camp is a completely different experience. Made with footage shot by some of the people featured in the film, it is an incisive piece which shows how disabled people empowered each other to improve their lives, and the lives of their extended community.
Othered by society, and excluded in a world before disability rights legislation (which only got passed thanks to the activists in the film) Camp Jened gave teenagers and young adults the chance to be teenagers and young adults. There were social groups, hang outs, relationships and sex between people who weren’t considered by society to be people in the sense of having a social and/or sexual life.
The theme of sexuality and relationships is one which may challenge viewers with biases that were held 50 years ago (and were wrong even then); I found this joyous, and hope that viewers will find it confronting in a positive way. So often disabled people are assumed to be asexual, to lack the personhood to have relationships or casual sex and this is part of the problem that society has with those who are so very different to the majority.
The second half of the documentary focuses on the activism led by Judith Heumann, Denise McQuaid and others, many of whom had met at Camp Jened as campers or counsellors. The relationships forged then, in the carefree and equitable atmosphere of the camp, led to empowered activism and radical action by Disabled In Action. The group were pivotal in getting Section 504 passed, and their action led to others finding community.
It was impossible not to be moved by the courageous actions and testimonies of people who effected massive change in the civil rights of a marginalised group – even my alexithymic brain picked up on the goosebumps and minor face leakage this documentary inspired.
I read Heumann’s autobiography Being Heumann earlier this year, which is also a great look at her life experience from feeling part of a community with her peers until some kids pointed out her difference, and she was excluded from mainstream education. I was glad to have read this before watching the film, as it gave me more context and background on the 504 Sit-ins that enriched the footage.
Section 504 is now under threat, along with other pieces of legislation and guidance established to protect the rights and lives of people with disabilities in the US. Crip Camp ought to be required viewing for anyone who opposed DEI initiatives, who lambasts equity of access to society as “woke” in the perjorative, and who believes that human worth can be valued according to percieved ability.
You can watch Crip Camp here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFS8SpwioZ4