Who are the real Freedom Writers?
Yes. The Holocaust survivors in the movie, who eat dinner with the students at the Marriot, are the actual survivors who dined with the real Freedom Writers. These individuals include Renee Firestone, Eddie Ilam, Elisabeth Mann, and Gloria Ungar.
Is Freedom Writers based on a true story?
Yes, ‘Freedom Writers’ is based on a true story. LaGravenese developed the script for the film from the 1999 book ‘The Freedom Writers Diary,’ a compiled version of the journal entries by the real Erin Gruwell and her students. In 1994, Gruwell joined Woodrow Wilson High as a student-teacher. The students that she was assigned to were reportedly regarded as “ unteachable ” by school administrators.
Was Freedom Writers a true story?
Yes, ‘Freedom Writers’ is based on a true story. LaGravenese developed the script for the film from the 1999 book ‘The Freedom Writers Diary,’ a compiled version of the journal entries by the real Erin Gruwell and her students.
Who are the main characters in Freedom Writers?
The main characters in "Freedom Writers" are the teacher, Erin Gruwell, and the students. Some of the students play more prominent parts in the movie than others - for example, Eva, the most ...
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What is the main idea of Freedom Writers?
The main themes in The Freedom Writers Diary are tolerance, empowerment and self worth, and the power of writing. Tolerance: Through literature, Gruwell teaches her students the power of tolerance and enables them to better understand each other and the world around them.
What is the story Freedom Writers all about?
A dedicated teacher (Hilary Swank) in a racially divided Los Angeles school has a class of at-risk teenagers deemed incapable of learning. Instead of giving up, she inspires her students to take an interest in their education and planning their future. She assigns reading material that relates to their lives and encourages them all to keep journals.Freedom Writers / Film synopsis
Why should people watch Freedom Writers?
The Freedom Writers is an inspiring story about never giving up on a student's success just because of what the teacher sees. The movie and the real events that inspired it prove that love, a safe classroom, and a great teacher play a huge role in students' well-being.
Who gave Gruwell the pearl necklace?
She still wears the necklace of pearls her father, Stephen Douglas Gruwell, gave her. She wore them for the first time when she was a 24-year-old teacher facing her first “at risk” students, including gang members, victims of domestic violence, homeless and even some honor students.
Who is the author of Freedom Writers?
For other uses, see Freedom Writers (disambiguation). Freedom Writers is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey and Mario . It is based on the 1999 book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell and students who compiled the book out ...
Where is Freedom Writers Diary based?
It is based on the 1999 book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell and students who compiled the book out of real diary entries about their lives that they wrote in their English class at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California.
What is the movie The History Boys about?
The movie The History Boys breaks from this pedagogy of the individualist educator from Freedom Writers and other movies, and looks at how academic communities with more than one educator may be able to foster deeper conversations due to the differences in beliefs pushing people to reach a deeper understanding of a topic instead of holding on only to the teaching philosophy pushed by the individual educator-hero .
How much did Freedom Writers gross?
Freedom Writers had a domestic gross of $36,605,602 and had a foreign gross of $6,485,139 bringing the movie to a total gross of $43,090,741 worldwide. On the film's opening weekend it grossed a total of $9,405,582 ranking 4th behind Children of Men (3rd), The Pursuit of Happyness (2nd), and Night at the Museum (1st).
What is the movie Freedom Riders based on?
The movie is also based on the DC program called City at Peace. The title of the movie and book is a play on the term " Freedom Riders ," referring to the multiracial civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961.
Who made the documentary Erin Gruwell?
The idea for the film came from journalist Tracey Durning, who made a documentary about Erin Gruwell for the ABC News program Primetime Live. Durning served as co-executive producer of the film. The film was dedicated to the memory of Armand Jones, who was killed after filming Freedom Writers.
Is Freedom Writers a good book?
Freedom Writers has received mostly positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes provides links to 126 reviews, 70% of which are positive. The critical consensus is that " Freedom Writers is a frank, formulaic entry in the inspirational inner-city teacher genre, with an energetic Hilary Swank leading the appealing cast of unknowns." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 64/100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
What did Erin Gruwell say about self promotion?
In defense of the critique of being too self-promotional, Gruwell said that it was attention forced upon her in the media as a catalyst for education reform. She said that she would be profiting from self-promotion if she were, but she hadn’t. Erin Gruwell in 2015 — From Erin Gruwell on Wikipedia Commons.
What about the millions of other classrooms out there whose stories go unheard?
What about the millions of other classrooms out there whose stories go unheard?
Why was the department head reluctant to give Gruwell’s students full versions of books like The Diary of Anne Frank?
The depiction of the department head in the film was reluctant to give Gruwell’s students full versions of books like The Diary of Anne Frank and Romeo and Juliet because she thought kids might lose and damage the books.
Did Erin Gruwell work at Woodrow Wilson?
In real life, however, Er in Gruwell actually did do some great work at Woodrow Wilson High School (whose name a Change.org petition is now urging to change) in Long Beach, but real life is, of course, more ambiguous than the movie. Gruwell did a lot of good with her student, but other teachers in the school did too. She was the only one that got mass media attention, and it’s not like she didn’t deserve it, but other teachers deserved it too.
Who said that any large urban high school was going to have problems?
A Long Beach board member, Karin Polacheck, said that any large urban high school was going to have problems, but that Gruwell probably overstated its problems. Polacheck was more understanding of the fact that some of Gruwell’s students had been exposed to gangs, and that the film wasn’t dependent on that.
Who was the teacher in the movie "Wilson High School"?
Another Wilson teacher, Sue Westphal, who was the head of the English department during Gruwell’s time at Wilson high school also lamented that the film portrayed the school as “a gang-infested school where nobody cares,” but acknowledged that during the Rodney King riots, there was a fight involving 20 or more kids on campus.
Is the story of Gruwell true?
The true story is a balance between the reactionary perception that Gruwell manipulated and used her kids’ academic success for personal gain, and the white savior narrative that she changed her students’ lives.
What is the movie Freedom Writers about?
Freedom Writers is a film about modern-day Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses in the early 60s to test the US Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate buses. The Freedom Writers were students inspired by their pioneering teacher to embrace racial integration.
How long did it take Richard LaGravenese to write the Freedom Writers Diary?
It took writer and director Richard LaGravenese six years to craft a narrative from The Freedom Writers Diary’s entries. From that story, he created the inspiring film Freedom Writers.
Who encouraged her students to journal their experiences?
Erin encouraged her students to journal their experiences, bringing them closer together. Excerpts from the journals feature in The Freedom Writers Diary . Erin talked to PBS SoCal about how she got her students to share their journal entries:
How did Gruwell's approach work?
Gruwell’s approach worked as the students learned of the power of personal storytelling. They also learned of the destructive potential of racial stereotypes and the ruin racial wars had brought upon the world.
Who plays Erin in Freedom Writers?
In FREEDOM WRITERS, enthusiastic and innocent teacher Erin Gruwell ( Hilary Swank) arrives at a high school in Long Beach just after the L.A. uprising in 1992, aiming to follow in her civil rights activist father's footsteps.
What is the lead character in the book?
Lead character is an idealistic teacher determined to reach the "at-risk" students she teaches. She helps to foster a community in the class, one that goes beyond the racial tensions and difficult home lives many of the students face outside the classroom.
Why did Erin create the Freedom Writers Foundation?
Erin created the Foundation to spread the message about issues teenagers face in high school.
Who encouraged students to record their personal lives in journals?
Erin ripped up the rule book and taught English her way. Instead of Shakespeare, students read The Diary of Anne Frank. Gruwell encouraged them to record their personal lives in journals, which excerpts would later form the New York Times Bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary .
Who were the Freedom Writers?
The Freedom Writers, including Erin Gruwell (front, center), in 1999. (File photo) Sue Ellen Alpizar wiped away tears as she talked about the darkest days of her teenage years in Long Beach. That was 20 years ago, but she remembered her suffering like it was yesterday.
What room was the Freedom Writers documentary in?
A documentary depicting what happened before, during and after the Freedom Writers entered Room 203 at Wilson 20 years ago will be shown free from 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Crystal Cove Auditorium at University of California, Irvine. The documentary, “Freedom Writers, Stories from an Undeclared War,” will be followed by a question-and-answer period and book signings by Gruwell and some of the Freedom Writers.
How many teachers have attended the Freedom Writers Institute?
Gruwell said more than 600 teachers have attended the Institute from all 50 states, along with 20 countries.
Who is on the cover of Freedom Writers Diary?
Many of those stories were published in the bestselling book, “The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.” Sue Ellen is on the cover of that book with Gruwell and other Freedom Writers. This also is the 10th anniversary of the Freedom Writers movie starring Hilary Swank.
Who said "I am proud to watch my kids become adults"?
Speaking like a proud parent, Gruwell said, “Over the years, I have been proud to watch my ‘kids’ become adults. I am still their cheerleader, their mentor, their confidante. I learn from them every day, and, in this way, I have also become their student.”
Overview
Freedom Writers is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey and Mario.
It is based on the 1999 book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell and students who compiled the book out of real diary entries about their lives that they wrote in their English class at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California. The movie is also based on th…
Plot
In 1994 in Long Beach, California, Erin Gruwell has been accepted to teach English for at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson High School—a once highly acclaimed school that has declined since voluntary integration had been enforced and where racial tension has increased since the Los Angeles riots two years before. Erin struggles to form a connection with her students and observes numerous fights between some of them, who are in rival gangs.
Cast
• Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell
• Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey
• Scott Glenn as Steve Gruwell, Erin's Father
• Imelda Staunton as Margaret Campbell
Release
Freedom Writers had a domestic gross of $36,605,602 and had a foreign gross of $6,485,139 bringing the movie to a total gross of $43,090,741 worldwide. On the film's opening weekend it grossed a total of $9,405,582 ranking 4th behind Children of Men (3rd), The Pursuit of Happyness (2nd), and Night at the Museum (1st).
Reception
Freedom Writers has received mostly positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes provides links to 126 reviews, 70% of which are positive. The critical consensus is that "Freedom Writers is a frank, formulaic entry in the inspirational inner-city teacher genre, with an energetic Hilary Swank leading the appealing cast of unknowns." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mains…
Criticisms
Freedom Writers is set in California during the 1990s, which is still feeling the effects of the 1992 Los Angeles riots two years after the time period of the movie. The scene is set by the opening news montage chronicling the riots, and the narration from Eva explaining the racial dynamics that still pervade her city and her school. From the beginning, the perception of race is demonstrated by the students’ reception of Gruwell and their attitudes towards each other, but a…
Effect on education
Since its release, Freedom Writers has become a topic of conversation in the reshaping of teaching styles, especially in classrooms with at-risk children. Following the success of The Freedom Writers Diary, Erin Gruwell founded the Freedom Writers Foundation. The non-profit encourages a more diverse and inclusive classroom experience with the specific goal of providing further educational opportunities for minority and at-risk students. Gruwell, the original Freedo…
Soundtrack
Common lent his talents to the soundtrack with "A Dream", featuring and produced by The Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am. The soundtrack also includes the Tupac Shakur song "Keep Ya Head Up".
Instrumental sections of Sia's "Breathe Me" accompany the film's television trailer.
The Freedom Writers soundtrack contains the following songs: