Get Campy with Summercamp!

The nostalgic scenes of summer camp haven't changed. Pine trees, canoes, cabins, square-shaped cafeteria meatballs, and Kumbaya still frame the American adolescent camper's experience. And Swift Nature Camp, serenely situated in northern Wisconsin, is no exception to this piney camp paradigm.

Capturing the three-week window of summer where kids lose their laptops, their parents, and their otherwise year-around indefatigability, directors Bradley Beesley (Fearless Freaks) and Sarah Price (American Movie) deliver Summercamp!, a documentary that brings viewers back to the carefree campfire of childhood.

The kids run the show, both at camp and in the film. There's Cameron, a chubby young teen with behavior problems and a severe case of the "momma's boy" syndrome; Holly, a little girl who obsesses over chickadees and turtle hunting; and Spence, a precocious and wiry eleven-year-old who reads Tom Clancy and wants to be a Navy SEAL-he sure is smart, or "double smart," as he explains.

It's fair to say that Swift Nature Camp receives a pretty strange bunch of kids-one Chicago-based ten-year-old (she sports a wedge-angled haircut whose drama competes with the high slope of her cat-eye glasses) explains that she selected Swift Nature Camp by reading the Chicago Tribune Magazine. Nature camp seems the perfect outlet for this bespectacled little camper, as she explains, "I prefer animals to humans…humans are like pink blobs with no defenses."

Throughout the movie, this particular child's pithy observations leave the audience grappling to defend its preconceived notions of the campers: she somehow compels the viewers to defend their pink blobiness, though she makes them feel that they need cat-eye glasses to do it.

The thing about Summercamp! is that no part of it is unexpected-we all know we're going to see wedgies, green Jell-o, quirky camp counselors, and the occasional fishhook incident. But this predictability is also what makes the film comfortable and campfire cozy. The crunch of a burnt marshmallow, the shuddering of a Miller moth atop a lantern, the smell of tuna fish as it's slapped upon the stale surface of a hotdog bun. For 85 minutes, we're back at camp, and we're being reminded that "lights out" is at nine.

Price and Beesley only prompt the campers a few times throughout the course of the movie, otherwise allowing the kids to create the movie's material organically. One of the greatest moments comes from Spence, who while awaiting his turn on the canoe, picks up a paddle and starts pretend playing the hook from "Smoke on the Water." The film gains a further folksy feel with music from The Flaming Lips and Noisola.

Grainy, black and white clips of crickets and toads jumping around on the Wisconsin ground do more to break up the daily camping rituals and remind the audience that they are, in part, watching a nature show.

The pace of the movie starts and stops with the spurts of Swift Nature's activity: the field races and hacky sack tournaments speed the frames faster than the tile painting and clowning electives offered at the campsite (yes, clowning electives). The film's instinctive lulls of energy mirror any kid's hot, lazy day summer experience, and the burnout felt by the end of the season reminds most of us why we never signed up to be camp counselors.

But even with the painted-on smiles and oversized shoe efforts of the cheery clown instructor, be prepared to be a little sad in watching Summercamp!-not all the campers are happy. Some are homesick, some are there to make friends because they have none at home, some are dealing with discouraging medical diagnoses, some are confronting heartrending family struggles. It's no wonder they want to go turtle hunting and rock out to some Deep Purple.

But if you're looking for a return to Camp Chickasaw, Tomahawk Ranch, or wherever it was that you spent your summer nights missing home while loving the bunk bed lifestyle, check out a showing of Summercamp!, and enjoy some nice soundtrack music while you're at it. Strangely mellow yet strongly youthful, this documentary welcomes the dormant camping spirit with its clarity, familiarity, innocence, and walking sticks.

Summercamp! runs Thursday, July 26?August 2 at the Starz Film Center. Visit www.denverfilm.org or call 303- 893-3456 for show times and pricing details.

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