Freedom Writers

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

OUR FILM REVIEW
BY: ZOBIA, MALEEHA, MARWA

TOUCHING QUOTES FROM FREEDOM WRITERS
In every war, there is an enemy. I watched my mother being half-beaten to
death, and watched as blood and tears streamed down her face. I felt useless and
scared, and furious at the same time. I can still feel the sting of the belt on my
back and my legs. One time he couldn't pay the rent. That night he stopped us on
the street and pointed to the concrete. He said, 'pick a spot. -Brandy Ross

"My brother taught me what the life is for a young black man. Pimp, deal,
whatever. Learn what colors to wear. Gang banners. You can sell to one corner,
but you can't sell another. Learn to be quiet. The wrong word can get you
popped." -Andre

SUMMARY
The storyline of the movie takes place between 1992 and 1995, which beginnings with scenes from the
Los Angeles Riot. Erin Gruwell a new, excited schoolteacher, leaves the safety of her hometown, Newport
Beach, to teach at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, a formerly high achieving school which has
recently had an integration program put in place. Despite choosing the school on purpose because of its
integration program, Erin is unprepared for the nature of her classroom, whose students live by generations of
strict moral codes of protecting their own at all cost. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that
has been killed by gang violence. The Latinos hate the Cambodians who hate the blacks and so on. It isnt till
Ms. Gruwell gives her class an assignment to write about their lives in the journal, which will not be graded,
and remain unread by her unless they choose to, that she understands her students. Erin tries harder and
harder to provide resources for her students by working an extra 2 jobs. Its not until later that her students
start to trust Gruwell and what she is trying to do. But as the year comes to an end, the students want Ms.
Gruwell to teach them in junior and senior year. It takes lots of convincing, but the school board finally
agrees.

HUMAN RIGHT ABUSE IN FREEDOM WRITER
High school students self-segregate to racial groups in the classroom, gangs fights break out, and eventually most of
the high school students stop attending class.
Gruwell their teacher also has difficult times with her department head who refuses her to teach the students with high
school books, in case they get damaged or lost, and tells her to focus on training their discipline and obedience.
Eva, a Mexican American girl and Sindy, a Cambodian refugee attend the same convenience store. A man (Grant Rice)
playing the arcade game gets frustrated and asks for his money where Evas boyfriend aims to kill the man but misses
and kills Sandys boyfriend. This case goes to court where Eva intends to grant her own in her testimony.
A racist drawing of a black student name Jamal with big lips goes around the classroom and from this the teacher
notices that the students know nothing about the Holocaust. She noticed that the students have little understanding of
major crucial events that have happened in the course of history.



The racist drawing of
Jamal
HUMAN RIGHT ABUSE IN FREEDOM WRITERS CONTINUES..
As the school refuses to support her in her students education , she buys journals for her students to write about
anything they want to share. The students talk about their experiences of being abused, seeing their friends die, and
being evicted.
Gruwell takes 2 part-time jobs to buy books for her students and a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Where the
students get interested by the different Holocaust survivor who shared their stories.
The following semester Gruwell teacher the same students and they read the diary of Anne Frank, the students get
inspired by the book and raise money to invite Miep Gies, the woman who sheltered Anne Frank. As she shares her
story, Eva rethinks her testimony that she lied about and tell the truth.
From that she gets attacked by members of her gangs and for her own safety she lived with her aunt.

EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
The society of Los Angeles, California in 1992
is full of gangs with different races. There is no
justice, no peaceful protests, there are riots
firing between the different gangs
There were over 120 murders in Long Beach in
the months following the Rodney King riots
which were a series of riots, looting and arsons
following the freeing of police who were
involved in police brutality.
EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
At the beginning, Evas father is shown teaching
her to fight people who consider Latinos lower than
them. This teaches Eva to hate everyone that is not
her kind. When a parent guardian gives these
types of teachings, the child is bound to follow in
their footsteps.
The next event to impact Eva is when she sees her
first murder of an innocent Latino and her father
being taken to jail for no reason as he was
innocent. This increases Evas hate especially
towards white people who arrested her father.
Every gang member believes that they are fighting for
what they believe is only THEIR America. This type of
thinking makes the different gangs believe that their
approach is the only right way to go.

Anyone who was a part of a gang and happened to
cross another gang, was beat up and tortured, and this
included girls as well. There was a lack of understanding
between these gangs, a lack of understanding in the
sense that they never really knew why they were beating
up a person, they just knew if they were not your kind,
they were considered nothing and it never mattered
what happened to them.

EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
They lived by this thinking that you were
fighting to protect your own. Even if the
other person was innocent, you never back
down from protecting your own people and
saving them. Eva was faced with such a
situation when she knew the boy was
innocent and did not shoot the Cambodian,
but due to her fathers teachings as a
witness, she stated that the boy was guilty,
even though she knew that it was one of
her own people that had shot him.

EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
While starting an integration program in school, they
lost 75% of their strongest students because of
everyone hating each other and not wanting to learn
together. This impacted students by having no
education and the school losing their rating as a
reputable school.
Another teacher says that integration is a lie and
these children dont deserve to be here. When
someone in a position who students look up to says
such racist remarks, the students are bound to also
show no sympathy or care. Its the fact that these
teachers dont put any effort into helping their
students become better people that makes the
situation worse.

EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
After the racist drawing of Jamal, Ms.G compares it to the Holocaust and
how Hitler used pictures like these against Jewish people as propaganda.
She explains how the pictures made these people seem as the lowest type
of species on Earth. A student then asks about what the Holocaust is. This
gives the teacher as well as the audience an understanding on how these
students really arent educated enough. If they had the knowledge and
understanding of what the Holocaust was and how much damage it caused,
maybe they wouldnt be so violent and have hate towards each other. She
realizes that these students need to learn about the Holocaust because the
main reason to learning it, is so history doesnt repeat itself.
Eva says that the teacher doesnt understand what theyve been going
through, because they get beat up every time they go out, she says she
hates Ms.G, only because she is white and she knows what she is capable
of doing even though Ms.G has no such intentions.
EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
Everyone in the classroom had lost at least
1 family/friend due to gang violence. That
is how severe the situation had become.
With the vast amount of killings, abuses
and violence was not getting any better but
it allowed everyone in the class to make
their first connection with each other. They
all started sharing their stories through a
journal.
EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
One of the students, Betty
explains in their journals
about how their mother was
half beaten to death and
thrown out of the house by
her husband. Betty and her
brother were also thrown
onto the streets when he
couldnt pay the rent.
Domestic violence was very
common, and if it affected
anyone the most, it was the
children who were growing
up in a harsh environment.
Due to guns being readily available for anyone, a child finds
a gun and is trying to show his friend and accidentally shoots
himself being naive on how to use a gun. The friend was
taken to juvenile even though he was innocent. If people of
authority or even this childs parents had taken caution of
having guns where a child could reach, a lot of this could
have been avoided.
Another journal also
describing physical abuse,
not understanding why her
boyfriend is hitting her. The
problem here is that she
does not stand up for herself
when he abuses her. She
doesnt call the police for the
abuse he causes which is
one of the reasons the
abuser might continue to hit
her viciously enough to leave
bruises.
A girl explains how the War in Cambodia had changed
her fathers thinking and made him more abusive towards
others especially her and her mother.
A boy explains how him and his mother were evicted out
of their homes. No reassurance of a home and no money
was given to them to keep them safe.
When Eva stands up for the innocent man who didnt
shoot the Cambodian and against her own calling him
guilty, the Latino gangs up on her, calling her a traitor and
almost killing her but letting her go because her father is
a respected person. Her father wont talk to her anymore
even though it was the right thing to do and she has to
shift homes so she could remain to be safe.
EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
The effect of the abuse on the characters and of society had led them to
understand each other as they all had gone through the same pain. It taught
them to understand each other and to do the right thing. It united them together
and made them stronger.
EFFECTS OF THE ABUSE ON THE CHARACTERS AND SOCIETY IN THE
FILM
Cinematography - Lighting
Cinematography is the combination of camera angles, camera shots, camera movement and lighting.

The director uses lighting to set the mood. In the scene where Ms.Gruwell discusses Andres self
evaluation, the light directly hits Ms.Gruwells face and it casts shadows on Andres face. The lighting in
this scene, implies that the actors are discussing a serious situation because of the high contrast
lighting. (low contrast = happy mood; high contrast = more serious mood).



Cinematography - Camera angles
Over the shoulder camera angles are used commonly when two characters are having a
conversation.
In the scene where Ms.Gruwell is talking to Margaret Campbell, over the shoulder camera angles
are used.
This over the shoulder shot helps the audience see Ms.Gruwells perspective and helps to
establish the position of each person

Cinematography - Camera angles continued
This is a low angle camera position
It shows that Ms. Gruwell has more power and authority over her students
This suggests to the audience, that white people have more power over Cambodians, Latinos and
African-Americans
By looking up at the character, the audience can feel vulnerable and small





Cinematography - Camera shots





The director also uses panning to give an overview of the setting.
Panning can make otherwise still shots, more dynamic, give a scene a more expansive feel, and
track the movement of an object
This pan shot helps give the audience a panoramic view of the setting and is used to establish a
scene
In this pan shot of the school yard, the audience can easily see that all the students have divided
themselves up into groups.








Cinematography - Music
The director also uses music to create mood
In the scene where Eva and Sindy finally sit down and talk together as friends, happy music plays in the
background. This evokes certain emotions within the audience. The audience feels happy and relieved
that the two characters are finally friends and not enemies.

Empowering music plays when Ms. Gruwell gives the news to her students
that she can teach them for their junior and senior year. The audience can
feel the energy of the characters because of the powerful music playing in
the background as the students celebrate.