Film Review: Crip Camp

Who’d have believed that a summer camp for handicapped kids in New York’s Catskills would lead to major political action that would eventually become the Americans with Disabilities Act? All it took was dedication, work and determination.

Don’t pass up a chance to see “Crip Camp,” the new documentary that shows how they did it. I know, the title sounds tasteless and condescending, but these campers are so humorous and inspiring and the film so well done (Michelle and Barack Obama are the executive producers) that you’ll be fascinated by it.

Holding the film together is idea man James LeBrecht, who was born with spina bifida. “They didn’t think I’d live more than a couple of hours,” he reports. “Apparently, I had a different plan.” When he grew up, his plan was to work in theater; he has been the sound designer at Berkeley Repertory for some years.

LeBrecht acts as a sort of narrator/guide, explaining that Camp Jened began in 1951 as a traditional camp for handicapped kids to take part in prescribed activities. But with the advent of ’60s and ’70s counterculture, things changed. The camp became more experimental, a place where the kids could play guitars, go swimming, make out or do whatever they wanted.

Camp Jened, three hours north of Manhattan in the Catskills, is out in the woods “where you can smell the trees.”  There, they could meet with other handicapped kids and not have to deal with the isolation and stigma they faced in the outside world.

“It was like Woodstock,” says camper Denise. “It was utopia. We were there. There was no outside world.”

They formed closer bonds than usual for a camp setup. And counselors slept in the same bunks, which made it a great setup for discussions about why the outside world treated the disabled like objects and why buses were not accessible, which led to thoughts of political action.

As the kids grew up and went to college, they still came back to summer camp to see their friends. In the mid-’70s, some of the gang moved to Berkeley, where they established the Center for Independent Living. 

Several of them got involved in social movements. The federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 gave them the perfect vehicle to advance the handicapped cause. That law (the predecessor of the Americans with Disabilities Act) addressed the notion of equal access by removing architectural, employment and transportation barriers. 

But Section 504, which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment against people with disabilities, was not enforced.

Only a lengthy (and often amusing) sit-in outside Califano’s house and Washington offices (starring many former Jened campers) finally got the desired response.

“Camp Crip” is not only an inspiring story, but a wonderfully edited film with a captivating script and a terrific cast of dedicated hell-raisers. Don’t miss it.

"Crip Camp" is screening on Netflix.

Film Review: Identifying Features

Many of the so-called “hordes of illegal immigrants” we’ve been hearing about so dismissively for the last four years are just teenage boys who have left home in search of work, as first-time director Fernanda Valadez shows us in the touching film “Identifying Features” (Sin Señas Particulares).

Her heroine is a mom named Magdalena (Mercedes Hernández), whose teenage son Jesús left their home in Guanajuato, Mexico with a friend named Rigo to try to find work across the border. But neither boy has been heard from since, and Magda simply can’t let that ride. She decides to go to the border herself and try to find out what happened to Jesús. Her friend Chuya (Laura Elena Ibarra), another mom who has been down this road before, gives her some tips.

At the border, Magda needs to sign up and stand in line. It all seems so … impersonal, and when on a videotape of victims’ possessions Magda spots a duffle bag that belonged to Jesús, she does what Chuya has advised: “Don’t sign anything without a blood match, because if you do and it isn’t his, they won’t help you anymore.” But her main advice is “Don’t get caught, because the penalty is deportation.”

So Magda goes off on a private odyssey to try to trace her son’s steps, in hopes of finding someone who can tell her anything about Jesús. It will involve bus rides, long trudges in unfamiliar territory and talking to people who may be dangerous – and it may all be in vain.

She bumps into another searcher: Miguel (David Illescas), himself a teenager, returning to Mexico from U.S. deportation, looking for his mother. They go their separate ways, only to meet again in a shattering conclusion.

Valadez’s shooting style flips from lyrical and lovely countryside scenes to the horrors of the border and all that entails to dreamy episodes of the past – mostly accomplished by using the technique of blurring the shot. Some might find it annoying, but I didn’t find it so, and the superb portrayal by Hernández engages our interest throughout. 

Clarice Jensen’s score reflects the rest of the film: spare, but effective, sometimes loud like a blast from a car radio, other times quietly lyrical.

“Identifying Features” is an impressive debut feature. Heck, it’s an impressive feature, period. I look forward to Valadez’s next effort.

“Identifying Features” opens Jan. 22 at San Diego’s Digital Gym Virtual Cinema.

Film Review: Epicentro

 

The recent talk about free speech, control and who’s lying about what that has recently taken over American airwaves fits right in with filmmaker Hubert Sauper’s impressionistic, colorful and altogether delightful “Epicentro,” which takes the history of Cuba as its subject.

Sauper explores the island’s outside influences (i.e., colonialism) and internal politics, but concentrates on the attitudes of present-day Havana residents. Our guides are two young girls – Leonelis Arango Salas and Annielys Pellaclito Zaldivar – who tell us they’re making a film about “foreign influence and slavery and people in the street.”

Cuba – perhaps best known to gringos as “America’s playground” – has had to contend with outside colonial powers since the arrival of Columbus in 1492, when he declared it Spanish territory. Immediate attempts to enslave the indigenous population and the later importation of black slaves from Africa led to several failed rebellions, but in the late 19th century the U.S. decided it wanted influence in the territory. 

The sinking by Spain of the American battleship USS Maine led to war and the resulting American colonization of the island, which soon sprouted hotels, casinos and other tourist amenities. Popular films and magazines featured pictures of sandy beaches and those great old convertibles of the ‘50s and ‘60s cruising down the street.

What the tourist press didn’t cover was the now-infamous American prison at Guantánamo Bay, which needs no explanation to Americans.

This sort of dichotomy – the beauty and delight of island life for vacationers in contrast to the grimness of a prison – led Sauper to reflect on truth in life as well as truth in the arts like cinema. But this is no stuffy historical treatise – Sauper is careful to show the delight, joy and spontaneity of the Cubans, most especially the children.

It’a a bit of a roller-coaster ride, taking us down one route only to say “no, that’s not it” and take another way. But it’s engaging all the way – especially  those irrepressible kids, who at one point get Sauper to pretend to a luxury hotel that they are his children, so they can use the pool on the hotel roof.

Oona Chaplin (Charlie’s granddaughter) even shows up, acting with one of the girls, singing a song and attending a screening of a Chaplin film, to the delight of the children.

“Epicentro” is a rarity: a real documentary that exposes the bad (and the fake) while not ignoring the real joy of life in Cuba.

Theater Review: An Iliad

What is it about war that mankind likes so much? Humans have been at peace for just 268 of the past 3,400 years – eight percent of recorded history.

The Greeks and the Trojans went at it way back when, and in “An Iliad” – Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s solo take on Homer’s “Iliad” – a Poet muses on the craziness of the conflicts that brought those groups to war. 

North Coast Repertory Theatre offers Richard Baird as the Poet, in a COVID-safe taped version that ranks as the best I’ve ever seen. This version leaves out recent updating like talk about supermarket lines and road rage, but throws in other contemporary references like fighters being from Kansas, Queens, and multilingual Miami. 

The Poet is here to talk about that other rage, the kind we’ve seen a lot lately, which is why this story will never be outdated.

Rage is also one of the main causes of war, of course. And (at least in this war’s case) a woman, the gorgeous Helen, who was promised to and seduced by Paris, who dragged her off to Troy.

There’s another subplot: Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, has taken a liking to Achilles’ girl Briseus (yep, another woman), but Achilles is not about to let her go. 

Achilles is the greatest warrior who ever lived. But when Agamemnon says he’ll get Briseus somehow, Achilles goes on a sit-down strike and refuses to fight the Trojans. He’s just going to sit in his tent and wait.

Did I mention craziness?

Baird plays all these parts with superb voice and body language. He’s especially funny as Helen, and annoying as the guys who can’t wait to kill each other, or to just sit it out in the tent. 

Baird has a terrific Muse in Amanda Schaar, a fine cellist who both wrote and performs a fitting soundscape for the poet’s musings. Sometimes skittering, sometimes raging down the strings or pounding on the boards, she gives the cello its own script.

“An Iliad” offers 100 minutes of excellent theater, highly recommended. It also leaves us with a question we should all ponder (and get our representatives to do likewise): How do you ask a person to be the last to die for a losing cause?

“An Iliad” streams through January 3, 2021 at northcoastrep.org. 

Tickets $35

Film Review: Survival Skills

I’m always on the lookout for unusual films, and they don’t come much odder than Quinn Armstrong’s comedy/drama “Survival Skills.”

Presented as a recently-found ‘80s training video for new recruits to the imaginary Middletown Police Department, Stacy Keach narrates the black-and-white piece, which continues to degenerate in quality (with tracking lines and snow) as we watch.

We meet new recruit Jim Williams (Vayu O’Donnell), all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, who just wants to serve and protect his community. Jim meets his unimpressed partner Allison (Ericka Kreutz), who notes right off the bat that “I didn’t request you. In fact, I requested not-you.” But Jim is undaunted by this.

The tape is narrated by the Chief (Spencer Garrett), who is here to pass on the police protocol basics. Cops, he says, “are 89% white, make a median income of $70,000, and in 1980 they voted for Reagan.”

The lighthearted approach gets serious fast when Jim is confronted with a domestic violence case which, as the Chief notes, is “about the toughest call there is.”

Jim is serious about wanting to help, but will progressively find himself wading into deep water, where established procedures fail him and he finds himself unable to keep the emotional distance required. He begins to learn that his success will depend in no small part on an ability to see citizens more as objects than people.

This has been a strange year, and police have been in the news a lot, often in unflattering stories. Armstrong gathered much of his material from his work in domestic abuse shelters, where he saw similar conflicts between those needing help and those tasked with giving it.

“Survival Skills” is a cautionary tale worth seeing, amusing at times, sobering at others, its lessons well worth pondering.

 Opens on demand Dec. 4.           

Theater Review: JQA

Okay, the election is almost over, and with luck we will soon return to whatever version of normalcy Covid-19 allows.

But what about politics? Americans have been complaining about it – and almost all candidates – since the U.S. was established way back in the 18th century.

If the events of this year’s election cycle seem extreme to you, take a deep breath and let San Diego Repertory Theatre take you back to those early days with a filmed version of Aaron Posner’s delightful civics lesson and paean to American politics “JQA.”

That would be John Quincy Adams, of course, born to the second U.S. President, whom we will meet as a 9-year-old and follow his – and the country’s – stories through to JQA’s old age and the arrival of the young man from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.

“This is not historical fiction,” we are told, “but fictional history,” related in a series of imaginary encounters with historical figures of the moment.

"JQA" offers four actors: an African American woman, an African American man, a Latinx man and a white woman. All play JQA at different times (and can be identified by the red jacket they wear). And all play two to four other characters (John Adams the elder, John’s wife Abigail, JQA’s wife Louisa, James Madison, George Washington, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Frederick Douglass and Lincoln) as well. If it gets a bit confusing, relax and enjoy the dialogue. There will not be a quiz.

Director Sam Woodhouse’s powerhouse cast – Larry Bates, Crystal Lucas-Perry, Jesse Perez and Rosina Reynolds – play these ten roles without dropping a word or an appropriate attitude. Reynolds gets the medal for the most portrayals: five, all excellently played. Bravos to costumer Anastasia Pautova, lighting designer Chris Rynne and sound designer Matt Lescaut-Wood as well.

JQA was groomed to a political career, though he claims it wouldn’t have been his first choice. A voracious reader who loves theater and writing (which he does daily in his journal), he spent time as ambassador to the Netherlands and Russia before deciding to run for President and later Congress.

But the question under consideration here isn’t whether JQA should run for office or teach at Harvard. It’s this: Just what should this young, scrapping country be and do? What is (or should) a democratic government be about? Who should run it?

Given the difficulty of two people finding agreement on nearly anything in the political realm (especially this group, whose widely divergent ethnic, religious and social groups led them to leave where they were and become Americans (and, in many cases, slaveowners), it’s scarcely surprising that there’s a lot of arguing in this play.

JQA, for example, when he finally becomes president, complains to old friend and political foe Henry Clay that “I just thought I’d have some power. Some capacity to actually make things happen. They are determined not to do things – things that matter to the real people they are sworn to serve – simply because it would mean I had accomplished something!”

JQA has a list of things he thinks government should do: establish observatories, build roads, adopt standard weights and measures to make business easier. Clay not only questions those as valid projects for government to undertake, but has an even less palatable suggestion.

“Here’s an idea you’ll hate,” he says. “I’m going to use the C word: COMPROMISE! If you don’t learn to compromise, you’re going to find yourself playing more golf than governing.”

Sound a little…..recent? Remember, this is historical fiction, but oh, so relevant.

“JQA” is a delightful and wonderfully presented visit to a fanciful version of our forefathers (and mothers).

“JQA” has been extended to November 29. Don’t miss it.

Film Review: The Glorias

 

Gloria Steinem – one of the real heroes of the women’s movement – gets her own movie treatment in Julie Taymor and Sarah Ruhl’s “The Glorias,” a two-hour-plus biopic that should impress you but may also exasperate you. The film – based on Steinem’s book “My Life on the Road” – is now available on Amazon Prime.

Born in Toledo in 1934, Gloria’s dad Leo (Timothy Hutton) was an itinerant traveling salesman whose motto was “traveling’s the only education,” which presumably set Gloria up for a lifetime of just that. Most notably, she got a two-year fellowship to India, where she encountered a particularly pernicious form of sexism that could include murder.

Her flair for writing led her to apply for a job at a New York magazine, where she was assigned to write about fashion because female writers weren’t taken seriously enough to be allowed to write about news or politics.

That led to a 1963 stint as a Playboy bunny in New York, after which she wrote a piece called “A Bunny’s Tale” for Show magazine. In 1972, she and social activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes co-founded Ms. magazine, which sold out its first 300,000 copies in eight days. Steinem was the first woman invited to speak at the National Press Club.

Steinem’s life has been both important and chaotic, as she took on one cause after another. Likewise, the film includes women she met and worked with along the way, including Bette Midler as firecracker New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, Janelle Monáe as Dorothy Pitman Hughes, who taught Steinem to conquer her fear of public speaking, and labor leader Dolores Huerta, whose work with the United Farm Workers is legendary. She worked with native women as well, and the most touching scene is her goodbye to Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected leader of the Cherokee nation.

“The truth will set you free,” she famously said. “But first, it will piss you off.”

Steinem’s major unfinished work is her effort to get Congress to pass the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), which still hasn’t passed.

“The Glorias” is in a sense an exhausting mess of a film, using five actors to portray Gloria at different ages and occasionally putting all of them together in the same scene. Is it confusing? Yes, especially if you’re not familiar with Ruhl’s style. It burbles along, occasionally stumbling over itself in the logic department. Best to just sit back, enjoy what you see, and be thankful for this life well lived.