On ‘P.O.V.,’ an Inspiring Search for Independence

“If I Can’t Do It” is much like other strong, small, personalized “P.O.V.” documentaries whose raggedness around the edges, instead of being a detriment, seems almost to enhance their appealing intimacy.

What elevates this film by Walter Brock further above the crowd is its unusual subject: Arthur Campbell Jr. was born with severe cerebral palsy in 1944 in a cabin in the mountains of Kentucky and spent the first 38 years of his life at home with his parents. His father thought he could change if he just tried harder. His mother put her hope in faith healers.

Campbell’s story is told here largely in his own words, which are read by narrator Nick Stump from Campbell’s unpublished autobiography. We also hear from his family and friends.

“Nothing in my life prepared me for my first sight of Arthur,” Brock recalls in his film about meeting Campbell in 1987. “There he sat in his wheelchair, drooling, arms flailing, making loud noises that I could not imagine made sense.”

In other words, not your ordinary Louisville lip. Much like Irish writer Christy Brown, though, within this gnarled package are a headstrong spirit, a keen intelligence and a sense of humor that thread this documentary brightly. Campbell battles prejudice, his environment and his own demons--ultimately realizing that society, not he, needs changing--en route to becoming an effective advocate for disability rights.

Some of his story is startling, as in Campbell initiating a hunger strike to force his parents to place him in an institution (he ultimately gets his own apartment). Some of it is humorous, such as Campbell shattering that old stereotype about severe disability equaling asexuality.

“I was 39 years old, and I had never held a woman’s hand,” he recalls. Then comes his “friendship” with an exotic dancer in a bar. “This was the first woman I ever loved,” he says. “When she disappeared, it broke my heart. And I was out 650 bucks.”

What most separates Campbell’s story from the usual triumph over adversity, though, is that it’s not a complete triumph. The complex Campbell is neither maudlin nor heroic. Although his dreams and ambition still soar, he is flawed and certainly a qualified success.

“You’re makin’ this film about a has-been,” he jokes at one point, having squabbled with associates and lost his job as a disabled rights advocate for the state of Kentucky.

What’s never lost is something this film projects so well about Campbell: the sheer exhilaration of being independent.

* “If I Can’t Do It” airs on “P.O.V.” at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.