Freedom Writers is a
2007 drama 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
Long Beach,
California. The title is a play on both the terms of "
Freedom Riders", the black and white
civil rights activists who tested the
U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the
desegregation of interstate buses in 1961, and
Freedom Fighters, as in somebody who fights for freedom.
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.
