James LeBrecht

James LeBrecht is a filmmaker, sound designer, and disability rights activist.[1] He currently lives in Oakland, California.[2]

Early life

James LeBrecht was born in New York[3] with spina bifida, a birth defect in the spinal cord. This made him unable to use his legs.[2] At 14 years old,[4] he began to attend Camp Jened during the summer, where he befriended teens with disabilities and felt empowered as a disabled youth.[5] He later became a member of Disabled in Action. He attended the University of California, San Diego, where he helped form the Disabled Student Union.[1]

Career

After college, LeBrecht relocated to Berkeley, California, where the disability rights movement was developing at the Center for Independent Living.[4] In Berkeley, he worked as a sound designer. He began his career at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, where he worked for ten years.[6] In the 1980s, LeBrecht obtained an apprenticeship at a post-production facility, which let him break into film.[3] Over the years, LeBrecht has done sound design work for over 145 films, with a particular focus on documentary films. His filmography includes Minding the Gap,[7] The Waiting Room, The Island President, The Kill Team, Audrie and Daisy,[8] Battlefield Earth, and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.[9] He is the founder of Berkeley Sound Artists[6] and co-author of Sound and Music for the Theater: the art and technique of design.[8]

He is a board member of the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund.[6]

Crip Camp

LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham are co-directors of Crip Camp (2020), an award-winning documentary.[10] The film was executive produced by Barack Obama and Michelle Obama through Higher Ground, their production company[11] The film tells the story of Camp Jened and its impact upon the disability rights movement.[12] In 2020, the film won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Zeno Mountain Award at the Miami Film Festival.[13]

gollark: Hmm. Did you *know* they were going to do that?
gollark: If limited liability was gone, investment in risky things/startups/new businesses/whatever *would* go down a lot, which I think is bad.
gollark: Not so risky that you could lose an *unknowable* amount of money.
gollark: Which probably means high premiums, which means people won't buy it and then complain when something bad happens.
gollark: Pandemic insurance which didn't run on the government strategy of "just borrow tons of money and hope it doesn't break things" would need lots of money saved.

References
  1. "James LeBrecht". Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  2. "'Crip Camp' Directors Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham Explain How They Worked With The Obamas". Decider. 2020-03-27. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  3. "Meet James, Sound Designer | Gladeo". Gladeo.org. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  4. "Crip Camp: An Interview with Filmmaker Jim LeBrecht About Accessibility, Universal Design, and Spaces of Freedom". Archinect. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  5. Lopez, Kristen; Lopez, Kristen (2020-03-16). "'Crip Camp': Directors Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham's Documentary Uncovers a Forgotten History". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  6. "James LeBrecht, Filmmaker, Founder of Berkeley Sound Artists". Diversity Media Technology Alliance. 2019-05-16. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  7. "Jim LeBrecht". SOCIAL ACTION MEDIA. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  8. "Crip Camp". International Documentary Association. 2018-01-26. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  9. "James Lebrecht". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  10. Channing, Cornelia (2020-04-04). "The Directors of Netflix's Crip Camp on What the Documentary Can Teach Us Today". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  11. "How 'Crip Camp's' Bay Area filmmakers wound up capturing birth of a movement". The Mercury News. 2020-03-24. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  12. Crip Camp, retrieved 2020-04-05
  13. Crip Camp - IMDb, retrieved 2020-04-05
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.