In a “Dangerous Minds” type of movie, this moving drama seems to be much more and even more dramatic in nature. Often, I am confronted with statements to the fact that these type of movies have been made. But I remind those individuals, that for one movie there are thousands of individuals out there actually living this lifestyle… seemingly as if there is no way out. But there is a way out. Each story is different. And I think this is just a movie that will remind us, that despite all the wars out there, all the battles that are being fought in the world. There is a battle here in The United States that still has our children being killed each and every day.

Freedom Writers is based on the bestselling book The Freedom Writers Diary. Starring Hillary Swank in one of her most powerful performances that she has undertaken.

Hillary Swank plays a teacher named Gruwell who is tasked to teach so called “unteachable and unreachable” students. She introduces them to the diary and how Anne Frank and Zlata Filopvic used it as inspiration. So the students write their own diaries and write about their own experiences in the violent laden world that they live in, the challenges that they face, and the problems they face. This is a true story, a movie based on a book, based on these diaries, based on these lives…

After a tragedy shook the student body, Gruwell searched for a way to address the issues in her student’ lives. Assigning them The Diary of Anne Frank, she found that many students were able to identify with Anne’s challenges growing up in a warzone.

It was Gruwell’s next assignment that would profoundly change her students’ lives: she asked them to keep a journal, recording their experiences, their emotions, their challenges, and their triumphs. “The kids learned to pick up a pen instead of a gun, and the act of writing saved them,” explains director Richard LaGravenese. “Erin asked them to write about their wars and battles and it opened the gates for them to share their lives, which no one had ever asked them to do before. Through Anne Frank, she opened their eyes to a thirteen-year-old girl going through a war of her won and how writing helped her cope with her situation - and then, Erin showed them how to apply that to their own lives”

Freedom Writers Movie Page
The Actual Freedom Writers