Freedom Writers
LAGRAVENESE: For me Freedom Writers is in the lineage of Blackboard Jungle and To Sir With Love and that period. Everyone brings up Dangerous Minds, but I actually promised the real freedom writers who wrote the diaries, I wouldnt make Dangerous Minds.
Freedom Writers
You know, teachers well, adults in general tend to not respect teenagers and dont treat them like human beings, dont give their feelings much credit, and dont understand the wars that they face. I have a teenage daughter, so I know they face wars everyday they may not seem important to us, but to the kids, its life or death. With the freedom writers, theyd all been shot at, were really facing life or death every day.
Id say therere are documentary-like qualities, too the script is all their words. We auditioned thousands of non-actors to find our cast, some were at risk kids. We worked intensively with them, having them write their own diaries, taking them to the holocaust museum, as Erin had done with her class. Erin and the original freedom writers were constant consultants on the film. So, weve been responsible in the way good documentaries are to their subjects.
At the Montgomery city line, as agreed, the state troopers left the buses, but the local police that had been ordered to meet the freedom riders in Montgomery never appeared. Unprotected when they entered the terminal, riders were beaten so severely by a white mob that some sustained permanent injuries. When the police finally arrived, they served the riders with an injunction barring them from continuing the Freedom Ride in Alabama. 041b061a72