Cinematical

Summercamp! is a fun documentary—not dense with thought-provoking material, but the kind of movie where you just relax your brain and let the images and sounds wash over you. At times it feels like a feature-length Flaming Lips video, which is not at all a bad thing, except I kept wondering if Wayne Coyne would pop out from behind a tree and start somersaulting or building sandcastles. Co-director Bradley Beesley has directed several Flaming Lips videos, as well as the documentary about the band, Fearless Freaks.

Summercamp! follows a few kids and counselors around a summer nature camp in Wisconsin. A lot of the film's appeal is nostalgia: the campers sing the same songs and do the same things most of us did in summer camp, whether we were at a Scout camp or a Bible camp or a weight-loss camp. (Although none of the campers in this film had to suffer through a summer of leftover sun-melted Girl Scout cookies like I did when I was a camp counselor.) The gorgeously saturated colors throughout the film support that feeling of nostalgia.
The film spends a lot of time with two particular campers: Cameron, who is a bully by day and a big homesick kid by night, and Holly, who seems to have an odd fixation with chickadees. After the film, the filmmakers confessed that one reason why these kids were selected was because they liked the filmmakers themselves and would seek them out and chat with them: Cameron with Beesley, Holly with co-director Sarah Price. They aren't your average campers, which helps to sustain interest as well as momentum.

Summercamp! doesn't follow a timeline like last year's SXSW summer-camp documentary, Stagedoor, and doesn't have quite the narrowed focus of that film, either. The camp is a nature camp, but it doesn't seem to matter—some kids mention their love of animals or the environment, but they're not ambitious like the theater kids in Stagedoor. The film tends to drift along from one loose topic to another - homesickness, friendship, summer-camp romance, counselor burnout - and yet it doesn't feel disorganized or chaotic. Instead, the film is able to effortlessly maintain both its energy and the audience's interest.

A few serious issues are touched upon during the film. Throughout Summercamp!, the kids are as willing to talk about death, family problems, and trouble at school as they are about their favorite stuffed animals and their canoeing skills. At one point, the filmmakers ask the kids about their medications. It's a little surprising (to me, but maybe I'm naive) to learn how many campers are on meds for ADD, anti-depressants, or other drugs for mental health.

I would say that Summercamp! is a sweet family film, but some people might find the counselors' occasional four-letter words inappropriate for kids. Besides, Summercamp! is really a film for grownups who want to remember their own days at summer camp, both the fun times and the embarrassing moments. Apart from one song that incorporates a reference to Baywatch, camp hasn't changed so much since my days as a camper and then a counselor. Have the kids changed? Summercamp! shows us the ways they've changed as well as they ways in which they're just like us.