‘Freedom Writers’ is a 2007 movie starring English teacher Erin Gruwell as Hilary Swank and her vulnerable students at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Young and visionary, Erin is fully devoted to her students’ education and helps them to rise above the prejudices and crimes they face on a daily basis. He distributes textbooks among his students for use as magazines.
Because of his unusual teaching style, he receives a lot of criticism from his colleagues, especially from his department chair. If the film’s explicit coverage of racism and gang violence has made you wonder if real events have inspired it, this is what you need to know.
Is Freedom Writers Movie a Real Story?
Yes, ‘Freedom Writers’ is based on a real story. LaGravenese developed a movie script based on the 1999 book ‘The Freedom Writers Diary,’ a compiled version of magazine editions by real Erin Gruwell and his students. In 1994, Gruwell joined Woodrow Wilson High as a student-teacher. The students were reportedly considered “uneducated students” by the school authorities. As a result, students believe that the program has betrayed them.
When Gruwell began teaching, his hopes and resilience were met with doubts by students. After receiving a racist note from one of his classmates, he spoke to them about how such cartoons were indirectly linked to such horrific events in world history as the Holocaust. To his great surprise, most of his readers were unaware of one of the darkest chapters in human history. He then arranged for them to look at the ‘Schindler’s List’ and bought books with his own money. He also assured dignitaries to come and talk to his students.
He taught the same group of students in their final year. As in this film, students began keeping magazines in line with his instructions, and the practice drew them closer together. They realized that they had many things in common that they thought were more than racial divisions and social violence. These students are known as the authors of Freedom, whose name serves as a tribute to the 1960’s racist civil rights group Freedom Riders.
Gruwell encouraged his students to read books such as ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel, ‘Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo’ by Zlata Filipović, and Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl.’ The latter, in particular, had a surprising effect on several of her students, including a girl named Maria Reyes, who is reportedly the inspiration of actress Eva Benitez (April Lee Hernández) in the film.
Eventually, all of Gruwell’s 150 students graduated from high school, and most of them went on to college. After Gruwell founded the non-profit organization the Freedom Writers Foundation in 1997 and the founder of Kingston Technology Company John Tu working as an assistant, some of his former students began working under him.
Asked in an interview on how to connect with his students, Gruwell said “as a new teacher, I just wanted my students to put down their fists and pick up their pen and accept the pamphlet that says a pen is stronger than a sword. And I just had to understand why they don’t agree with reading and writing at school. ”She tried to find out their story, and in doing so, she helped them become storytellers. This led to the publication of the New York Times best-selling book and acclaimed film. Clearly, the ‘Freedom Writers’ are based on an amazing real story.
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