Freedom Writers (2007) on Netflix
PG-1320072h 3mBiographyCrimeDrama
In 1994, Erin Gruwell starts teaching freshman English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Her students belong to rival gangs, and many know someone killed in gang violence.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.6/1093,716 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes69%
Trailer
Plot summary
Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, has run a voluntary integration program for two years when Erin Gruwell arrives in 1994 to teach English to at-risk freshmen. Her classroom is divided by race: Latinos, Cambodians and black students, many of them in gangs, and nearly all of them know someone killed in gang violence. They ignore her lessons and fight among themselves. When Erin opens a class discussion about a drive-by shooting, she begins to grasp the odds she faces. She gives each student a composition book for a daily journal that she will not grade and will not read unless the writer allows it. To buy books and pay for activities she takes extra jobs, while her husband Scott Casey grows unhappy, and her section head Margaret Campbell objects to her methods.
Cast
- Sergio Montalvoas Alejandro Santiago
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Freedom Writers (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film is dedicated to actor Armand Jones, a cast member who was fatally shot at age 18 in Anaheim after a confrontation with a man who had robbed him of a necklace at a Denny's restaurant, following the film's shoot.
- The story is based on real diary entries written by teacher Erin Gruwell's own students at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, which they compiled into the 1999 book The Freedom Writers Diary.
- On a $21 million budget, the film opened to $9.4 million in its first weekend, ranking fourth, and went on to gross $43.6 million worldwide, with $36.6 million of that coming from domestic ticket sales.
- The film's idea originated with journalist Tracey Durning, who had made an ABC News Primetime Live documentary about Erin Gruwell, and Durning went on to serve as the film's co-executive producer.
- Since its release the film has become a topic in the reshaping of teaching styles, especially in classrooms with at-risk children, and Erin Gruwell went on to found the Freedom Writers Foundation.
