erin gruwell Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Interview: Freedom Writers: Erin Gruwell, Jason Finn and Maria Reyes
Filed under: Drama », Disney », Paramount », Interviews »
Freedom Writers tells the true story of teacher Erin Gruwell and her students -- a class of left-behind ghetto kids nobody cared about or believed in -- who, in working together, overcame the negative expectations of a school system that had given up on them. The real students -- who called themselves the Freedom Writers after they started journaling events in their lives -- had their real-life stories from their journals published in a book, and now writer/director Richard LaGravenese and Hilary Swank have brought their tale to the big screen. Cinematical say down recently for a chat with Erin Gruwell, actor Jason Finn, who plays one of the students, and real-life Freedom Writer Maria Reyes, to talk about the film.
Review: Freedom Writers
Filed under: Drama », Paramount », Theatrical Reviews »
When I first heard the plot of Freedom Writers -- inspirational movie about a white teacher bringing hope to poor, black students -- my initial reaction was: Yawn. Haven't we already seen this story, in Dangerous Minds, with Michelle Pfeiffer in the role of the white knight saving the day? So it was with not a little trepidation that I settled down with my popcorn and diet soda for the screening of Freedom Writers. And then ... what do you know? I was actually surprised -- in a good way -- to have my expectations proved wrong.
Too Much Great White Hope?
Filed under: Drama », Celebrities and Controversy », Movie Marketing », Politics »
There's an interesting debate going on in the comments on the IMDb page for the upcoming film Freedom Writers about whether Hollywood focuses too much on movies about white teachers changing the lives of poor, minority students. The film tells the true story of Erin Gruwell, a young (white) teacher who, wanting to do something with her life that would make a difference, chose to take her first job teaching Freshman and Sophomore English at Woodrow Wilson High to a group of kids who have been integrated into the formerly "good" -- read: white -- school, much to the resentment of the long-time (middle-aged, white) teachers who have been at Wilson since the good old days, before all those minority kids came in. The idealistic Gruwell is flummoxed at first around how to deal with her students, who hate her even more than they hate each other, but she finds a way to help the kids find common ground, and to find the potential buried deep within each of them. Gruwell has her students start keeping journals about their lives, which eventually are published into a book called The Freedom Writers.
A reader in the comments thread went off on a diatribe about the film being yet another "great white hope" film about a white schoolteacher saving the day with minority kids; other readers have fired back that this film is based on a true story, that it's inspiring regardless of the color of Erin Gruwell's skin. Other comments have opined that only minority teachers can really understand minority students, or that there are lots of inspirational stories about minority teachers out there that Hollywood doesn't make into films.
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