Magic Camp: Setting the Stage for Life

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Maggie Glass.

Director Judd Ehrlich at the DOC NYC screening of his film MAGIC CAMP.

MAGIC CAMP, a jubilant celebration of an unusual camp for young magicians, follows a number of campers as they spend a week honing their skills and gearing up for the camp’s end-of-week stage competition. The camp, which has run for over thirty years, is a place for kids who often spend the rest of the year feeling that they don’t quite belong. As one camper says gleefully, “If you can’t be a dork here, where can you?” Back home, camper Reed Spool may be a chubby high school drop-out, but at Magic Camp, his performance skills make him a hero. A returning champion, he finds himself surrounded by admirers at the beginning of the week. “You’re a legend!” one younger camper says breathlessly.

But even in a place like Magic Camp, kids aren’t immune from the problems that they face at home. Sick parents, money troubles, disability, and depression are issues that follow them to camp. The difference is that, for many of the campers, they are dealing with these issues in a safe environment with other kids like them.

Director Judd Ehrlich, himself an alum of Magic Camp, told the audience that the camp’s safe space extended to the filmmakers as well. “The kids were so open to talking to us about everything,” he said. An audience member noted that the cameras were there during some highly personal moments during the week: campers regulating their medications, dealing with homesickness, and keeping cool in a competitive and challenging environment. When asked if it was difficult to spend a full week in front of the cameras,  former camper Brian Woodridge shrugged. “I didn’t mind,” he said. “I’ve never been a shy person.”

In keeping with the spirit of MAGIC CAMP, DOCNYC’s screening extended beyond the typical film event. Before the screening began, magicians performed tricks for an enthusiastic audience in the lobby. Immediately after the credits rolled, Michael Hearst, the film’s composer, played a number of songs featuring the theremin, itself a rather magical instrument. Consisting of metal antennas that detect movement, the theremin can be played without being touched. After the musical interlude, many of the film’s participants were present to answer questions–a number of which came from very young children in the audience, who one day might just find themselves making friends, learning tricks, and winning trophies at Magic Camp.

Maggie Glass is a New York-based writer and Senior Educator at Museum of the Moving Image.