*Appearing at a film festival in South Africa, actor Morgan Freeman told an audience that the country’s budding film industry should focus on stories from its own rich and painful history of apartheid, and not try to copy the big-budget fare favored by Hollywood.
"Go your own way. Trying to emulate Hollywood is a mistake because the Hollywood way is not always the best way," Freeman said during his appearance at Cape Town's Sithengi film festival. "You don't need large amounts of money to make a film."
The 2004 Oscar-winner from Memphis, Tenn. was invited to the annual festival to help the South African film industry learn from the experiences of Hollywood. He appeared alongside 22-year-old Presley Chweneyagae, who starred in the Oscar-winning South African film "Tsotsi."
The acclaimed movie is part of South Africa’s burgeoning film industry following years of isolation and neglect due to apartheid. "Tsotsi" won the best foreign-film Academy Award this year, and the South African film "Yesterday" was nominated the previous year.
But despite the recent good fortune, South Africa’s film industry still sits in the long shadow of America’s Hollywood and India’s Bollywood, as local producers and directors struggle for funding and acclaim.
Freeman, 69, warned South African filmmakers not to let recent success go to their heads.
"This whole thing of `if I get one success, the next will follow like bowling pins' is almost never true," he said.