Freedom Writers

Their story. Their world. Their future.

Assigned the thankless task of teaching freshman English at a gang-infested Long Beach, CA high school, a 23-year-old teacher, Erin Gruwell, resorts to unconventional means of breaking through to her hardened students. Despite the initially hostile reaction she receives in the classroom, Gruwell uses the writings of Anne Frank and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo to teach her students not only the basis of the English language, but compassion and tolerance as well. Later, when the time comes to tell their own tales in a project specially designed to explore the daily violence that the majority of students have grown numb to, the barriers that had once stood so strong gradually begin to crumble. When the only chance for survival is to befriend the person who was once your mortal enemy, the world is opened to a whole new realm of possibilities.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violent content, some thematic material and language

Principal Cast: Hilary Swank, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey

Director: Richard LaGravenese