#Freedom writers cast movie
#Freedom writers cast free

#Freedom writers cast free

These two events inspire Eva to tell the truth, breaking free of the demands of her father to always protect her own. Later on, the class makes enough money to have Miep Gies come to the United States and tell her story of her helping Anne Frank, her family, and the Van Pels hide from the Nazis she then also persuades the students that they are heroes and that they 'within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.' On the first day, Erin makes her class propose a 'Toast for Change', allowing everyone to open up about their struggles and what they wish to change about themselves. The following school year comes and Erin teaches her class (now sophomores) again, making it the second year that she is their teacher.

Meanwhile, her unique training methods are scorned by her colleagues and department chair Margaret Campbell. The students start to realize that being rivals against each other, just based on race, should not be a reason to prohibit their friendships with one another. Erin invites several Jewish Holocaust survivors to talk with her class about their experiences and requires the students to attend a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. A transformation is specifically visible in one student, Marcus. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys composition books for them to use as diaries, in which they write about their experiences of being evicted, being abused, and seeing their loved ones die.ĭetermined to reform her students, Erin takes on two part-time jobs to pay for more books and activities, and spends a lot more time at school, much to the disappointment of her husband, Scott. The next day at school, Erin examines a racist drawing by one of her Latin American students and utilizes it to teach the class about the Holocaust, which everyone, except for White student Ben Samuels, has no knowledge of. As a witness, Eva must testify in court she intends to guard 'her own' in her testimony. As Grant storms out, Paco, as retaliation for losing a fight against him earlier during a massive brawl at school, attempts a drive-by shooting to kill him, but misses and accidentally kills Sindy's boyfriend while Grant flees the scene and is later arrested for the homicide. African American student Grant Rice, frustrated about losing an arcade game, demands a refund from the store owner. Eva's classmate and rival Sindy Ngor, who is a Cambodian refugee, her boyfriend, and another friend also enter the store. One night, Latin American student Eva Benitez goes into a convenience store while her boyfriend Paco, who is a fellow gang member, and two other friends stay in the car. Erin struggles to form a connection with her students and observes numerous fights between some of them, who are in rival gangs. 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.

He was fatally shot at age 18 in Anaheim, California after a confrontation with a man who robbed Jones of a necklace in a Denny's restaurant. The film was dedicated to the memory of Armand Jones, who was killed after filming Freedom Writers. Durning served as co-executive producer of the film. The idea for the film came from journalist Tracey Durning, who made a documentary about Erin Gruwell for the ABC News program Primetime Live. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961.

#Freedom writers cast movie

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. The movie is also based on the DC program called City at Peace. 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. 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.