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.
Co-directed by Emmy®-winning filmmaker Nicole Newnham and film mixer and former camper Jim LeBrecht, this joyous and exuberant documentary arrives the same year as the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, at a time when the country’s largest minority group still battles daily for the freedom to exist.
CRIP CAMP, a feature documentary from the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions and Netflix, was nominated for a 2021 Academy Award for Feature Documentary, and won a Peabody Award. The film had its world premiere on the opening night of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award. CRIP CAMP was also awarded Best Feature at the International Documentary Association Awards and received nominations for Best Editing at both the IDA (2020) and Critics Choice Awards (2020).
The film is directed by Nicole Newnham & Jim LeBrecht, and produced by Sara Bolder, Newnham & LeBrecht. Executive producers include President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. The film is available on Netflix worldwide.