Then, when she asks if anyone in the class has lost a friend or loved one to gang violence, everyone's hand goes up (except the white kid's).īy making them acknowledge their shared pain, Gruwell begins to break down the racial divisions that have ghettoized the classroom, a process that also involves them educating her about their lives. In the story's pivotal scene, Gruwell cracks down hard on a racist caricature with a stern reference to the Holocaust - until she realizes that only one of her pupils (the white kid) understands what she's talking about. Based on the true story of Erin Gruwell and her 1994 freshmen class, "Freedom Writers" at least intimates that the teacher has as much to learn as her charges. If there is something suspect about this genre's comforting images of white role models "elevating" underprivileged minority kids, it's worth noting that in the best of these films a recovered class-consciousness cuts both ways.
"It's not like I pictured it," she confesses tearfully to her husband (an attractively low-key Patrick Dempsey) after the schoolyard has erupted in a riot. Unprepared, certainly, for students wearing electronic ankle bracelets and packing heat.
FREEDOM WRITER MOVIE
DeVito has long-since graduated to producer status, but the song remains much the same as two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank squares up to a room of adolescent drop-outs and lost causes from "Little Cambodia, Wonderbreadland, the ghetto, and south of the border" (as the movie puts it) in a theoretically integrated Long Beach, California, high school.Īt first she's earnest and almost comically naïve, in her polka-dot dresses and pearls. In last year's "Take the Lead" Antonio Banderas turned delinquent teenagers onto George Gershwin and the foxtrot.Īnd way back in the distant sands of time I recall Danny DeVito preaching Shakespeare to recalcitrant recruit Marky Mark - um, Mark Wahlberg - in "Renaissance Man."
In "Dangerous Minds" Michelle Pfeiffer woke up her inner-city English class by getting relevant and quoting Bob Dylan. Through its eye-opening and inspiring stories, Dear Freedom Writer paints an unflinchingly honest portrait of today’s youth and offers a powerful message of perseverance, understanding, and hope.(CNN) - Movies about inspirational teachers never go out of style. With empathy and honesty, they address these young people not with the platitudes of a politician or a celebrity, but with the pragmatic advice of people who have dealt with these same issues and come out on the other side.
Each story is answered with a letter of advice from an original Freedom Writer. In Dear Freedom Writer, the next generation of Freedom Writers shares its struggles with abuse, racism, discrimination, poverty, mental health, imposed borders, LGBTQIA+ identity, and police violence. They want to be heard they want to be seen. Their stories speak to young people who feel as if those around them do not care about their lives, their feelings, and their struggles. Together, they co-authored The Freedom Writers Diary, which launched a movement that remains incredibly relevant and impactful today. Inspired by books like Anne Frank’s diary, her students began writing their own diaries, eventually dubbing themselves the Freedom Writers. Instead of treating them as scores on a test, she understood that each of them had a unique story to tell. Over twenty years ago, the students in first-year teacher Erin Gruwell’s high school class in Long Beach, California, were labeled “unteachable”-but she saw past that. The students of today tell their stories of adversity and growth in letters to the original Freedom Writers-authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Freedom Writers Diary-who write supportive and powerful letters in response.
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