April 19, 2026 - 19:15
For recognizing wholness they did a great job of keeping the people interviewed human and takled about all diffrent aspects of their lives, big plus for not desexualizing any of them too. Throughout the movie we see Judy and other organizers make sure that everyone is listened to and has a chance to add to the landmark decisions being made, highlighting both leadership of the most impacted and collective liberation.They brought up intermovement dependance by giving credit to the unions and the Black panthers who where involved with making the protests possible. For intersectionality they did talk a little bit about the intersection of disability and being a white woman but not so much disability and blackness or queerness. While they do show Steve as being queer they don't super talk about it at all and I wish they'd interviewed a black camper, even in the video clips they chose, almost all of the people who speak are white. It makes me wonder if camp was as much a paradise for black and queer campers as it was for the straight cis white campers. I also do wonder how class played a part in camp, how much it and transportation cost, what where the barriers of entry for camp? Judging buy how hippie it seems I wonder if the camp was more anti-capitalist then we actually get to see in the movies. I wonder how the counselors where compensated, what did the buissness side of camp actually look like? I wish they'd right a book on camp Jened itself, because I leave the movie with sooo many questions!
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Hi Lily! I really appreciate
Submitted by Katya on April 27, 2026 - 21:27 Permalink
Hi Lily! I really appreciate how you incorporated all of the principles of disability justice into your response. In the sections of the film focusing on Camp Jened itself, I think I was most struck by the way people's accounts reflected a recognition of wholeness, with such a comprehensive embrace of humanity and the full lives of all the campers and counselors, without hierarchies or classifications. A place where one could be “just a kid,” and “teenagers could be teenagers, without all the stereotypes and the labels”, the environment at Jened seemed to exude an overriding sense of acceptance. It was especially impactful to me that one person (though I forget who) said when they went back to life out of camp, they were “homesick for Jened,” indicating such a strong and consistent sense of safety and belonging. The social model of disability was clearly brought to the forefront of Jened’s philosophy, with a recognition of the problem of ableism, and not disability, as a barrier. It was overall such a valuable change of pace to see so much disabled joy in a major film, and to see it as the draw-in from the beginning, and not just an aside in a story of disempowerment or oppression. In no other piece of visual media have I seen the expression of such agency and freedom to be, or the embrace of sexual and romantic relationships and conversations in such a comfortable way.
However, given the rare nature of this representation of a vibrant, interdependent disabled community and creation of disability culture, I think you bring up such important questions about the extent to which other social identities, including race, sexuality, and class, were included in the community and culture creation. I am also so curious to learn more about how Camp Jened was financed and made affordable/economically accessible (or not), especially as so many campers seemed to travel so far, and am interested in how camp was experienced by bipoc and queer campers. As I was thinking about the financial and demographic considerations of camp, I also began wondering about the processes of inclusion and representation behind the creation of the documentary in general. Though the film contained recorded content, interviews, and discussions from Camp Jened campers and disability justice activists/actors, and Jim LeBrecht co-directed, I would be curious to learn more about how collaborative the creation process was, and the distribution of agency in the journalistic process. I also wonder about the process of finding and contacting campers to be represented and share their experiences.