Films are not just made purely for your entertainment, always look for the deeper meaning and wider context…You’ll be amazed at what you can learn.

Freedom Writer’s, PG-13

Set in 1994 in Long Beach, California, Freedom Writers takes place between the Los Angeles Riots between 1992-1995. Hilary Swank plays the role of Erin Gruwell a new, excited schoolteacher who 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. Her enthusiasm is quickly challenged when she realizes that her class are all “at-risk”students, also known as “unteachables”, and not the eager students she was expecting. The students segregate themselves into racial groups in the classroom, fights break out, and eventually most of the students stop turning up to class. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that has been killed by gang violence. The Latinos hate the whites who hate the Cambodians who hate the blacks and so on. Ms. Gruwell intercepts a racist drawing of one of her students and uses 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.  This is such a powerful film and will educate you about another era of life which alarmingly wasn’t even that long ago, showing that racism and segregation still heavily existed in the 90’s just as much as it did back in the days of Martin Luther King. Tee Cee

Disney’s Ruby Bridges

Disney’s Ruby Bridges (written by Toni Ann Johnson, 1998), is a film based on the true story of American activist Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954), who was the first ever black child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The film depicts the struggles the six-year-old and her family faced when she was due to start attending the William Frantz Elementary School, the idea of an African-American child being allowed to receive an education at a school that was previously reserved for whites was met with a lot of hate, riots and protests. Some parents went as far as to take their children out of the school due to Ruby Bridges attending. However it wasn’t just parents that were opposed to Ruby, teachers even refused to teach while there was a Black child enrolled, only one lady, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach her and she would teach her alone as though she had a full class. I recommend this film as it gives a great history lesson on how difficult it once was for Black children to receive an education in mainstream schools. After watching this film I found an all new appreciation for my education and a willingness not to take it for granted as many of us may do, sometimes without even realising it! Jade

The Hurricane, Rated R

This film tells the story of Rubin ”Hurricane”Carter, an African-American man who rose above his troubled youth to become a top contender for the middleweight boxing title. However, his dreams are shattered when he is accused of a triple murder, and is convicted to three natural-life terms. Despite efforts to prove his innocence through his autobiography, years spent behind bars for a crime he had not committed became discouraging. Then an unexpected table is turned when a young African-American boy and his Canadian mentors read his book and are convinced of his innocence enough to work for his exoneration. Hurricane and his new friends come to learn come to learn that a racist establishment profited from this travesty and never had any intention of admitting the truth. This film is hugely educational, not only showing the fight of African-American’s having to work hard just to be accepted in industries such as ‘boxing’ but it highlights the corrupt state of the police force and how easy it is for them to put an innocent person behind bars and get away with it just because of their skin colour. Tee Cee

(Images via tumblr)