MORGAN FREEMAN - FREEMAN'S MIXED PROM FILM TO PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE

FREEMAN'S MIXED PROM FILM TO PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE

MORGAN FREEMAN's 11-year bid to integrate proms for black and white students at a school in his native Mississippi has been turned into a documentary, which will air at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this weekend (17Jan09).
Freeman offered to pay for one mixed race prom at his local high school in Charleston after learning teachers still held separate end-of-year dances for black and white pupils. It took the school over 10 years to take him up on his offer.
Director Paul Saltzman's Prom Night in Mississippi will compete as part of the world documentary competition at Sundance.
Freeman admits parents initially ignored his offer to integrate the event even though their kids loved the idea.
He says, "It's kind of disheartening. In the little town we live in - this is a really small town - I don't know how you can live in such a small place and try to be separate."
Saltzman filmed Freeman as he made the initial pitch to the administration and then followed Freeman and the students as they prepared for the first mixed race prom.
The actor reveals the prom cost him about $17,000 (GBP11,300), which he calls "money very well spent".