Freedom Writers
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Freedom Writers |
| Original title | Freedom Writers |
| Country of production | Germany , USA |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 123 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 10 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard LaGravenese |
| script | Richard LaGravenese |
| production |
Danny DeVito , Michael Shamberg , Stacey Sher |
| music |
Mark Isham , will.i.am |
| camera | Jim Denault |
| cut | David Moritz |
| occupation | |
| |
Freedom Writers is an American film drama by Richard LaGravenese from the year 2007 .
action
Erin Gruwell started teaching English at Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach in the mid-1990s . She tells her boss that she became a teacher because she wanted to change the world after the race riots in 1992 .
At school - just like in the city - there is violence between members of different ethnic groups. Many teachers at the school have reservations about their students. Gruwell hears from her students that their main goal is mere survival.
One day she confiscated a drawing that depicts one of the students in a racist manner. Angry about this, the teacher draws parallels to racist Nazi propaganda in front of the class and is shocked to discover that only one of the students is familiar with the word Holocaust .
Gruwell makes writing down his own experiences and ideas his homework. The students are free to choose the size and shape. She also promises the students not to read the diaries without their consent.
Gruwell is slowly gaining the respect and trust of her students. Since the horizons of many of her students barely go beyond the neighborhood, she decides to plan a trip to the Museum of Tolerance and to deal with the Holocaust topic again with the class.
On the part of the school there is no willingness to invest funds in the difficult pupils. Gruwell therefore takes on several part-time jobs in order to pay for necessary expenses out of his own pocket and to buy school reading himself.
Gruwell uses, among other things, Anne Frank's diaries as school reading; Impressed by the reading, the students want to invite Miep Gies , the person Anne Frank was hidden from. They write letters and collect money to finance her trip. Miep Gies actually goes to school and gives a lecture.
At the same time, Gruwell's private life suffers from her time-consuming commitment to class. After a while, her husband, Scott Casey, is demanding a divorce.
Towards the end, the students compile their notes into a book, which is eventually published under the name Freedom Writers Diary . In the end, Gruwell fought for the right to continue teaching her class in the upper school, contrary to the rotation principle applied at the school.
Reviews
John Anderson wrote in Variety magazine that the final film "in a long line of films about saints who would save students" tries to be honest and not to be afraid of naivete. The result is "extremely moving". Hilary Swank's portrayal is "empathetic" and "open".
James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the film carries the message of hope and the possibility of changing one's destiny in an emotionally and intellectually satisfying way. It is not a great film, but an "effective drama" in which emotionally charged scenes appear real. Berardinelli praised the portrayal of April L. Hernandez, which looked like a "blast".
The lexicon of the international film judges: "The pedagogical fairy tale shaped by a convincing leading actress tries to avoid any kind of social kitsch based on a true story, but due to the subject inevitably also fulfills the clichés of the genre."
Awards
Richard LaGravenese received the Humanitas Award in 2007 and was nominated for the NAACP Image Award in 2008 for the script .
background
The plot is based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them published in 1999 , which the real Erin Gruwell wrote with her students. The German edition was published in 2007 by the Autorhaus Verlag : Freedom Writers: How a young teacher and 150 young people at risk have changed themselves and their environment through writing .
The film was shot in Long Beach and Los Angeles . By March 11, 2007, it grossed approximately $ 36.6 million in US cinemas .
effect
In Germany, the film resulted in the foundation of the ChangeWriters association , which aims to promote the learning success of students by improving the teacher-student relationship.
literature
- Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers: Freedom Writers. How a young teacher and 150 young people at risk have changed themselves and their environment through writing. Authors' House Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86671-017-7
Web links
- Freedom Writers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Freedom Writers at rotten tomatoes (English)
- Freedom Writers at Metacritic (English)
swell
- ^ Certificate of Release for Freedom Writers . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 117 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Freedom Writers . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Criticism by John Anderson ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Review by James Berardinelli
- ^ Freedom Writers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 6, 2017 .
- ^ Filming locations for Freedom Writers
- ↑ Box office / business for Freedom Writers
- ↑ Natalie Putsche: Changewriting project - "Then you can be you again". In: Deutschlandfunk . December 17, 2018, accessed February 27, 2020 .
