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''Freedom Writers'' is a 2007 dramatic film starring: Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey. It is based on the book ''The Freedom Writers Diary'' by teacher Erin Gruwell who wrote the story based on Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in the Eastside neighborhood of Long Beach, California. The title is a play on the term "Freedom Riders", referring to the multiracial civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961. The idea for the film came from journalist Tracey Durning, who made a documentary about Erin Gruwell for the ABC News program ''Primetime Live''. Durning served as co-executive producer of the film. The film was dedicated to the memory of Armand Jones, who was killed after wrapping up ''Freedom Writers''. He was 18 and was shot to death in Anaheim, California after a confrontation with a man who robbed Jones of a necklace in a Denny's restaurant. ==Plot== Woodrow Wilson is a formerly high-achieving school which has encountered some difficulties bearing its new racial integration plan. Gruwell's enthusiasm is challenged when she finds her class is composed of "at-risk" students, the "untouchables," and not the eager-for-college students she expected. Her students self-segregate into racial groups within the classroom. This is problematic, as gang fights break out and, consequently, most of her students stop attending class. Not only is Gruwell challenged with gaining her students' trust on personal and academic levels, but she must do so with very little support from her professional peers and district higher-ups. For example, her department head refuses to provide Gruwell with an adequate number of books for her class because she insists they will get damaged and lost. Instead, she suggests that Gruwell focuses on instilling concepts of discipline and obedience in her classroom. One night, two high school students, Eva (April Lee Hernández), a Latino-American girl and narrator for much of the film, and a Cambodian refugee, Sindy (Jaclyn Ngan), frequent the same convenience store. An additional student, Grant Rice (Armand Jones), an African-American boy is frustrated at losing an arcade game and demands a refund from the store owner. When he storms out, Eva's boyfriend Paco, as retaliation for losing a fist fight against Grant that took place earlier, attempts a drive-by shooting, intending to kill Grant but misses, accidentally killing Sindy's boyfriend. As a witness, Eva must testify at court; she intends to guard "her own" in her testimony. At school, Gruwell intercepts a racist drawing by one of her high school students and utilizes it to teach them about the Holocaust. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys them composition books to record their diaries, in which they talk about their experiences of being abused, seeing their friends die, and being evicted. Determined to reform her high school students, Gruwell takes on two part-time jobs to pay for more books and spends a lot more time at school, much to the disappointment of her husband (Patrick Dempsey). Her students start to behave with respect and discover a lot more. A transformation is specifically visible in one student, Marcus (Jason Finn). Gruwell invites various Jewish Holocaust survivors to talk with her class about their experiences and requires the students to attend a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Meanwhile, her unique training methods are scorned by her colleagues and department chair Margaret Campbell (Imelda Staunton). The following semester comes, and Gruwell teaches her class again, making it the second semester of her being their teacher. On the first day of sophomore semester, Gruwell makes her class do a "Toast for Change", allowing everyone to open up about their struggles and how they by members of her gang and ends up going to live with her aunt in order to keep herself safe. Meanwhile, Gruwell asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it ''The Freedom Writers Diary''. Her husband divorces her and Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. Gruwell fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to permit her to teach her kids' junior and senior year. The film ends with a note that Gruwell successfully prepared numerous high school students to graduate high school and attend college, for many the first in their families to do so. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Freedom Writers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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