I first heard about Crip Camp on a podcast that discusses documentaries, and not only did it sound like a wonderfully touching film, but it was executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, so I knew as soon as this came across one of my streaming platforms, I needed to give it a watch, and I’m so glad I did!
This documentary tells the story of Camp Jened in the early ’70s, a camp designed for teens with disabilities. These teens didn’t fit in one box—it wasn’t just for teens with mobility differences, or those who were nonverbal, or those who were part of special education classrooms in school. It truly became a fundamental part of their growth experience and a turning point in their activism in fighting for the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and section 504, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.
These are the hard-fought steppingstones to implementing access to buildings, to services, to equity in day-to-day life. I think even the hardest of hearts will melt hearing the now grown and established leaders who were once campers share their unstoppable joy for that magic place up in the Catskills. (106 min.)
—Anna Starkey
This article appears in Mar 20-30, 2025.