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From the outset,Crip Campcuts through any anti-boomer cynicism you might have.
Their beautiful feelings of acceptance and connection lay the foundation for the grueling struggle to come.
Why cant the real world be this accessible to them?
Alas, to the real world, they barely exist.
Some were diagnosed with polio, some spina bifida, some cerebral palsy.
Some are blind and/or deaf.
Some enunciate clearly, others struggle to be understood.
Deadhead Al Levy looks and sounds like the shaggy brainiacs who changed my life in college.
A handful of campers like Steve Hofmann are followed throughout the film, spotlighted in crowd scenes and demonstrations.
Heumann evidently hit the ground rolling.
(She would let me have that joke, I know she would.)
No, thats not strictly true thats my empowerment-speak.
They werent beaten or shot at like demonstrators at Selma, but they came from a different place.
The Earth wasnt solid beneath them.
No one has known what shes thinking because no one has listened closely enough.
Crip Camphas a more conventional trajectory, but it still goes to an unexpected place.
The uncomfortable truth that Newnham and LeBrecht dont dwell on (although Im sure they were tempted!)
I doubt you will either.
Crip Camp lives inside them and will now live in us.
