This photo is from the movie Freedom Writers. It shows a class with pupils from different ethnic origins. They are divided in two groups by a red line on the ground. A pupil is speaking and the teacher is listening. The kids come from tough neighborhoods.
In the foreground, the people are out of focus. Only the teacher and the girl in front of the blackboard are in focus. Everybody is standing up. This class is a typical high school classroom, with a teacher’s desk and a blackboard, but there do not appear to be any chairs or desks for the pupils.
I saw this film, so I can explain the situation shown in the picture. It’s a difficult class because these teenagers are in different gangs and they hate each other. The woman is a new teacher. She discovers the daily lives of her pupils.
She decides to play a game of truth. She says: “Who has seen someone die in front of them during a gang fight?” and all the people who have move forward to the red line. This moment is very touching in this movie because we learn what they live through and about their past, we understand their hatred, and we are shocked because they are too young to live like that. After, the teacher wants to help them and she becomes like a second mother for them.
Article by Angélique Beaudonnet
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