Author- Richard LaGravenese (screenplay)
Erin Gruwell (freedom writer’s author)
Year of publication- The movie was released on March 2nd, 2007.
Text type- Film
Synopsis-
Freedom writers is a true story from 1994 about a young, new English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School ( Erin Gruwell) who implemented a voluntary integration program for underprivileged, gang related kids. The integration has ruined the schools academic standing with many of the teachers giving up on these children because of their background and lack of intelligence and motivation to graduate.
These students rather focus on what’s more important, their strict morals and codes of protecting their own at all costs, resulting in fights and death between races. The movie expresses the true stories of what these kids had to experience in their everyday lives and how they came together as a class to form peace with each other.
How the text relates to belonging-
The way this text relates to belonging is through the protagonist, Erin Gruwell's, attempt to bring a sense of community and harmony within her class of students, who are deemed outsiders and failures by society.
The fact that Gruwell's students are referred to as the "unteachables" by other teachers, helps to bring into perspective that these individuals are the results of social and institutional exclusion. Gruwell incorporates this as a means to enhance the idea of belonging and being in peace with one another.
Through Gruwell's teaching, belonging is something that she combines into her approach to educating her students, forcing them to accept who they are as individuals and to create a classroom and community where all of them belong, even if society doesn’t comfirm this.
Identify language/film techniques that emphasis belonging-
Panning and close up shots were used a lot throughout this film to show and express to the audience the full extent of each scenario