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Cinema is generally, by dint of how long it takes to write, fund, shoot, edit and release a film, a retrospective artform. However, it is also always viewed through the lens of the world it emerges into. Burden takes a true story, set in the mid 90s, of a South Carolina man. Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund) has grown up in the Klan, being almost a son to one of the local leaders (an appropriately repellent Tom Wilkinson). Burden gets together with Judy, and through her is convinced to leave the Klan, which brings his former friends down on him and leads to an unexpected connection with a black preacher, Reverend Kennedy (Forest Whitaker).

This is an interesting moment to be watching a film like this. With Black Lives Matter protests active in many countries and one of the results being the increased discussion of the telling of black stories and...

(l-r) Usher Raymond and Garrett Hedlund, in Burden. Photo: Mark Hill/101 Studios

In this strange but true story, Garrett Hedlund plays a young white man is persecuted after leaving the Ku Klux Klan he was raised in but finds shelter with a forgiving black reverend (Forest Whitaker) in Burden.

The title hints at various meanings, although it is also the last name of the person at the center of this inspiring drama. A strong, nuanced performance by Garrett Hedlund adds greatly to director Andrew Heckler’s true story-inspired drama about redemption and compassion, In fact, the film benefits in many ways from an impressive cast, including Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough and Usher Raymond, each of whom give affecting performances in this tale of human transformation.

Garrett plays Mike Burden, a young man abandoned by his abusive parents and raised by Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson), the powerful leader of...

Mike Burden and Reverend David Kennedy’s 24-year friendship had an unlikely beginning.

When they first met in Laurens S.C., Burden was grand dragon of the local Kkk and Kennedy, an African-American pastor who grew up in segregated housing. At the time, Kennedy was trying to fight the existence of the small town’s Redneck Shop — a store, which was Burden’s idea, that sold racist memorabilia and hosted an unofficial Kkk museum.

“It’s disgusting,” Burden, 50, tells People in the latest issue, about returning to the Echo theater, which housed the Redneck Shop and was open from 1996 to...

Impractical Jokers: The Movie isn’t pranking us when it comes to their box office performance. After having a stellar opening last week, the big-screen adaptation of WarnerMedia’s truTV prank show expanded from 357 to nearly 1,800 theaters and earned an estimated $3,545,000, to bring its cume to $6.6 million. The movie has now cracked the top 10 at the box office, right behind Birds of Prey and ahead of 1917.

The pic debuted to an impressive $2.6 million and had the highest per-screen average among major releases at $7,302. The audience response gave it enough of a boost to expand in its second week out, adding 1,493 theaters in 210 markets. On Friday, it slipped 6%, but then jumped a massive 51% on Saturday from last week.

As much as it seems that the performance of Impractical Jokers was out of nowhere, it really isn’t. The Jackass movie franchise is cut from the same cloth as the prank-driven Impractical Jokers,...

More than two years after its debut at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Burden has finally come to theaters. After a surprisingly long wait, especially considering how the movie took home an award at Sundance, has it been worth the wait? Well, that’s a complicated questions. At times, the film is compelling, with high quality acting. At other points, however, the writing and direction can’t stack up to the performances. The end result is a flick with something to say, but a muddled way of saying it. Unfortunately, it won’t result in a recommendation here, though it’s undoubtedly not without its charms. This film is a drama, based on a true story, that looks at the impact that racist views can have on an individual. Set in a small South Carolina town, we meet Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund), a repo man who also happens to be a...

Burden 101 Studios Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Andrew Heckler Screenwriter: Andrew Heckler Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough, Tess Harper, Crystal Fox, Usher Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 2/24/20 Opens: February 28, 2020 “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear/ You’ve […]

The post Burden Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

The specialty box office is headed towards the second star on the right and straight on till morning with Benh Zeitlin’s magical adventure Wendy, a fresh reimagination of J. M. Barrie’s classic tale of Peter Pan. The pic from Searclight Pictures is Zeitlin’s follow up to his Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild which was released in 2012.

Co-written by Zeitlin and his sister Eliza, Wendy isn’t necessarily cut from the same cloth from Disney animated feature, rather it speaks to Zeitlin’s hyperealstic aesthtetic. The film, which debuted at Sundance earlier this year, stars newcomer Devin France in the titular role of Wendy, based on the heroine Wendy Darling of Peter Pan. In Zeitlin’s vision of Neverland, Wendy and her friends get whisked away by a boy named Peter where they get lost on a mysterious island where no one ages and time stands still.

Andrew Heckler has been spreading the same message for two decades. When the first-time filmmaker debuted his real-life drama “Burden” at Sundance in 2018, he teared up as he told a packed house what he hoped they would get out of it. “You can never turn an enemy into a friend through hate, you can only turn an enemy into a friend through love,” Heckler said, recalling the moment in a recent interview with IndieWire. “This is a real story about real people who had every reason not to do this, but they stuck through it, and the end is real love and real friendship and real understanding.”

The film was greeted with a five-minute standing ovation, but it would take two long years for “Burden” to find its way to theaters.

A fact-based drama about former Kkk member Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund), “Burden” follows the story of what happened after...

This wobbly but well-intentioned broadside against racism has been sitting on the shelf since it won the Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance 2018. What gives? Could it be that this true tale of 1990s Kkk resurgence has nothing to say to the here and now? Not if you live in the real world, where incidents like the white-supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, have sparked a resurgence of racist attacks from Parkland to El Paso. Just as Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman used an incident from the 1970s to show...

"I'm praying for some kind of sign... If this ain't a sign, then I don't know what is." Two years later this is finally being released. 101 Studios has debuted the second trailer for indie drama Burden, a film about the Kkk and a former Klansman who gives up his ways thanks to the help of a local reverend. This initially premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, two years ago, winning the Audience Award but it never got released like every other film from that fest. Garrett Hedlund stars as Mike Burden, a Klansman whose relationships with a single mother and a high school friend force him to re-examine his long-held beliefs. It also features Forest Whitaker, Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wilkinson, Usher Raymond, and Tess Harper. This looks like a tough one to watch, but Whitaker's powerful speech at the end makes this worthy. Here's the second official trailer (+ poster) for Andrew Heckler's Burden,...

Exclusive: 42West has hired former Rubenstein Evp Katie Schroeder as the firm’s Evp of Strategic Communications.

Simultaneously, 42West has promoted Rachel Aberly, Scott Feinstein and Annalee Paulo to Evp and Tara Fitzpatrick Portanova and Megan Zehmer to VP, all in the company’s Entertainment Marketing Division.

With Fitzpatrick Portanova and Zehmer’s promotions, they join Ashton Fontana, Jodie Magid Oriol, Todd Nickels and Jordan Van Brink as Vice Presidents in the company’s Entertainment Marketing Division.

Schroeder will report to Strategic Communications Division President Susie Arons, while the five report to Entertainment Marketing Division Presidents Susan Ciccone and Tom Piechura.

“Katie is among the most well-respected public relations professionals in the industry, and it will be incredible to bring her talents and expertise to our company. Rachel, Scott and Annalee have been part of our leadership — and a major driving force behind the ongoing success of our company — for many years,...

The Current War isn’t the only long-delayed film finally arriving in theaters. 101 Studios, the same distributor that revived the Benedict Cumberbatch-led feature will be giving life to Burden, a drama which will be released over two years after it premiered at Sundance Film Festival and picked up an Audience Award. Directed by Andrew Heckler and starring Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough, Tess Harper, Crystal Fox, and Usher, the film follows the story of a Kkk member who is awakened to a new path in life as he seeks redemption.

Dan Mecca said in his review, “There’s a clear desire to dig into the complexities of prejudice in Burden, written and directed by Andrew Heckler and based on the true story of Mike Burden. The ambition throughout is admirable, though the execution wavers a bit in spots. Garrett Hedlund stars as the titular character, a...

We’ve got a trailer for a fantastic-looking film called Burden that takes place in South Carolina in 1996, and involves a small town that is dealing with citizens who are at odds due to race. A local Reverend of a predominantly black church, played by Forest Whitaker, decides to reach out and help an ex-member of the Kkk, played by Garrett Hedlund, who is homeless and trying to turn his life around.

Here’s the synopsis for the film:

Set in a small South Carolina town scarred from deep-rooted racism in the mid-nineties, an unlikely friendship forms when an African American Reverend (Whitaker) shelters Mike Burden (Hedlund) a Kkk member, along with his girlfriend Judy, a single mother played by Andrea Riseborough. Through his faith and love, Reverend Kennedy helps Mike leave his violent past in the Klan ultimately helping to heal the community.

Burden also stars Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wilkinson,...

101 Studios have debuted a new trailer for Robbie Brenner’s Kkk redemption drama ‘Burden’ featuring Garrett Hedlund.

Based on a true story the film is directed by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Robbie Brenner (Dallas Buyers Club) and writer/director Andrew Heckler.

Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough, Tess Harper, Crystal Fox and Usher star alongside Hedlund and Whitaker.

Also in trailers – New trailer drops for Terrence Malick’s ‘A Hidden Life’

The film has a limited Us release from February 28th 2020

Burden Synopsis

When a museum celebrating the Ku Klux Klan opens in a small South Carolina town, the idealistic Reverend Kennedy (Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker) resolves to do everything in his power to prevent long-simmering racial tensions from boiling over. But the members of Kennedy’s congregation are shocked to discover that his plan includes sheltering Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund), a Klansman whose relationships with both a single-mother (Andrea Riseborough...

"Can't get rid of hate - just replace it with something else." 101 Studios has debuted the first official trailer for Burden, a drama about the Kkk and a former Klansman who gives up his ways thanks to the help of a local reverend. This premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and has been awaiting release - with plans to hit theaters this year until it was pulled from the schedule. It's now set to open in late February of next year, for those still curious. Garrett Hedlund stars as Mike Burden, a Klansman whose relationships with both a single mother and a high school friend force him to re-examine his long-held beliefs. Also stars Forest Whitaker, Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wilkinson, Usher Raymond, and Tess Harper. The film received great reviews and won the Audience Award at Sundance 2018, which is a big one. Take a look. Here's the first official...

David Glasser's 101 Studios has picked up the U.S. rights to Burden, Andrew Heckler’s Southern, 1990s-set drama that stars Garrett Hedlund as a Ku Klux Klan member who has a change of heart.

Burden, based on a true story about racism in America as faith and love overcomes hate, tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a Kkk member (Hedlund) and an African American reverend, played by Forest Whitaker, in a small southern town where a museum was opened to celebrate the Kkk. The film is billed as a story about redemption, forgiveness, and love.

The ...

David Glasser's 101 Studios has picked up the U.S. rights to Burden, Andrew Heckler’s Southern, 1990s-set drama that stars Garrett Hedlund as a Ku Klux Klan member who has a change of heart.

Burden, based on a true story about racism in America as faith and love overcomes hate, tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a Kkk member (Hedlund) and an African American reverend, played by Forest Whitaker, in a small southern town where a museum was opened to celebrate the Kkk. The film is billed as a story about redemption, forgiveness, and love.

The ...

berlinBen Miller, Franco Nero also cast; Metro doing sales.

Kelly Preston, Jenny Seagrove and Sally Phillips will lead the cast of Off The Rails, a UK comedy-drama from production outfit Bill Kenwright Films. Metro Films has boarded international sales and is talking to buyers at this week’s European Film Market in Berlin.

Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips has also been cast in the film, making her feature debut after breaking out in Sky Atlantic series Fortitude. She is joined by UK comedy actor Ben Miller and Italian actor Franco Nero.

Set to begin principal photography on February 17 in Mallorca, Barcelona and London,...

Exclusive: Chinonye Chukwu is attached to direct an adaptation of former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown’s memoir, A Taste of Power. Black List writer Alyssa Hill will adapt the screenplay. This comes right on the heels of the Sunday night Sundance premiere of Clemency, which Chukwu wrote and directed. The film is competing in the U.S. Dramatic Competition and the filmmaker and cast got a standing ovation.

The adaptation’s producers are Robbie Brenner and Kevin McKeon for Unburdened Entertainment, and Scooter Braun and James Shin for Sb Projects. Executive Producers are Elaine Brown and Jeff Kwatinetz, as well as Scott Manson of Sb Projects, Andrew Heckler and Bronwyn Cornelius, latter of whom is a producer on Clemency.

Paradigm is handling financing for the project.

Elaine Brown is the first and only female leader of the Black Panther party from 1974 – 1977, this after Huey Newton was exiled to Cuba.

Nantucket, Mass. — Andrew Heckler’s “Burden” and the documentary “Bathtubs Over Broadway” took top film honors at the 23rd annual Nantucket Film Festival.

“Burden,” the story of a man’s attempt to break from the Kkk, won for narrative feature. “Juliet, Naked,” Jesse Peretz’s sweet-natured romantic comedy starring Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd, and Ethan Hawke, was runner up for narrative feature. Rudy Valdez’s “The Sentence,” the story of a woman’s “Orange Is the New Black”-esque odyssey through the criminal justice system, was runner up in the documentary field.

“Bathtubs,” directed by Dava Whisenant, tells the story of “Late Show With David Letterman” writer Steve Young whose life is changed when he stumbles into the “hidden world” of corporate musicals, or Broadway-style musical recordings commissioned to burnish corporate images and promote their products.

The short film nod went to “Homeless: The Soundtrack” from Irene Taylor Brodsky.

Andrew Heckler's Burden won the audience award for best narrative feature at the 23rd annual Nantucket Film Festival. The awards, unveiled today as the five-day festival wrapped, saw Jesse Peretz's Juliet, Naked, written by Evgenia Peretz, Jim Taylor and Tamara Jenkins, take home the runner-up prize.

Dava Whisenant's Bathtubs Over Broadway won the best documentary feature award, while Rudy Valdez’s The Sentence was named the runner-up. Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Homeless: The Soundtrack was awarded best short film, and Randall Christopher’s The Driver Is Red is the runner-up.

In addition, Nff revealed its Best of Fest selections, special repeat screenings determined ...

Andrew Heckler's Burden won the audience award for best narrative feature at the 23rd annual Nantucket Film Festival. The awards, unveiled today as the five-day festival wrapped, saw Jesse Peretz's Juliet, Naked, written by Evgenia Peretz, Jim Taylor and Tamara Jenkins, take home the runner-up prize.

Dava Whisenant's Bathtubs Over Broadway won the best documentary feature award, while Rudy Valdez’s The Sentence was named the runner-up. Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Homeless: The Soundtrack was awarded best short film, and Randall Christopher’s The Driver Is Red is the runner-up.

In addition, Nff revealed its Best of Fest selections, special repeat screenings determined ...

The Nantucket Film Festival, whose 23rd edition is set for June 20-25, has announced its 2018 honorees.

The Screenwriters Tribute will go to Noah Baumbach, the Special Achievement in Documentary Storytelling Award will go to Morgan Neville, and the New Voices in Screenwriting Award to recent Sundance alum Andrew Heckler.

Given the festival’s longtime emphasis on screenwriting, the Screenwriters Tribute is always a centerpiece. Baumbach’s night will be Saturday, June 23, and will likely draw a host of notables to the Massachusetts island. Another regular feature of the festival, the All-Star Comedy Roundtable, will focus this year on improv. Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley) and Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation), will debut an improv show they performing in a national tour. The night will be presented by Ben Stiller, who will also participate in the show.

Baumbach just wrapped production on a new film he wrote and directed starring Scarlett Johansson,...

The Nantucket Film Festival will honor filmmakers Noah Baumbach and Morgan Neville during the 23rd edition of the island festival that runs June 20-25.

Organizers also unveiled plans for Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz and Ben Stiller to join the fest’s annual comedy night, with a focus on improv this year.

Baumbach is known for his intimate character studies in such films as “Kicking and Screaming,” “The Squid and the Whale,” “Greenberg,” “Frances Ha,” and most recently, Netflix’s “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).”

Neville earned the feature documentary Oscar for 2013’s “20 Feet From Stardom.” His most recent doc, Focus Features’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” tells the story of TV legend Fred Rogers, who was a Nantucket regular and host of PBS’ “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

The fest’s New Voices in Screenwriting kudo will go to Andrew Heckler, writer and director of “Burden,” which revolves around...

Noah Baumbach will receive this year's screenwriters tribute at the Nantucket Film Festival.

The Oscar-nominated writer-director behind The Squid and the Whale will join other honorees, including Morgan Neville, at the annual festival that runs June 20-25. Neville, whose 20 Feet From Stardom won the best feature documentary Oscar in 2014, has been tapped for the special achievement in documentary storytelling award. And Sundance Film Festival audience award winner Andrew Heckler will receive the new voices in screenwriting award.

The screenwriters tribute will take place Saturday, June 23. The festival will see the return of the popular All-Star Comedy Roundtable,...

By most estimations, this year’s Sundance was not a big marketplace. While Neon picked up the midnight movie “Assassination Nation” for $10 million, and breakouts like “Sorry to Bother You” (Annapurna), “Puzzle” (Sony Pictures Classics) and “Colette” (Bleecker Street) are all coming to theaters at some point, a number of highlights from this year’s program ended it without homes. Of course, it goes without saying that obvious commercial plays like “Juliet, Naked” and star-driven dramas like “Wildlife,” both of which didn’t end Sundance with distribution plans in place, will eventually find them. But they aren’t alone. As the dealmakers continue to sift through their options, here are the festival standouts we’d like to see at the top of every buyer’s list.

See More:The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival “306 Hollywood”

When people occupies the same household for decades,...

There’s a clear desire to dig into the complexities of prejudice in Burden, written and directed by Andrew Heckler and based on the true story of Mike Burden. The ambition throughout is admirable, though the execution wavers a bit in spots. Garrett Hedlund stars as the titular character, a Ku Klux Klansman living in South Carolina. He puts in work as a repo man for Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson), a Kkk leader and supremely evil person. Mike’s doing his best to come back from years of military service overseas, mumbling through his sentences and walking with a handful of limps and ticks. It’s a whole lot of performance from Hedlund, whose choices stay consistent and ultimately build themselves into the narrative.

When Mike finds love in single mother Judy (Andrea Riseborough, always impressive and stealing scenes), he’s forced to question the lived-in racism that’s informed him most of his life.

The Miseducation of Cameron PostU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeThe Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan)Directing AwardThe Kindergarten Teacher (Sara Colangelo)Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting:Benjamin Dickey, BlazeSpecial Jury Award for Outstanding First Feature:Monsters and Men (Reinaldo Marcus Green)Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking:i Think We're Alone Now (Reed Morano)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardNancy (Christina Choe)Audience AwardBurden (Andrew Heckler)Next Next Audience AwardSearch (Aneesh Chaganty)Next Innovator AwardNight Comes On (Jordan Spiro) & We the Animals (Jeremiah Zagar)U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury PrizeKailash (Derek Doneen)Directing AwardOn Her Shoulders (Alexandria Bombach)Special Jury Award for Social ImpactCrime + Punishment (Stephen Maing)Special Jury Award for Creative Vision:Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross)Special Jury Award for Breakthrough FilmmakingMinding the Gap (Bing Liu)Special Jury Award for StorytellingThree Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle)Audience AwardThe Sentence (Rudy Valdez)World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeButterflies (Tolga Karaçelik)Directing...

The official awards for the 2018 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at a ceremony in Park City. We've been patiently waiting to see who won the awards at Sundance this year, and now we know - it's not any of the films we expected. This seems to be one of the oddest sets of winners in years, but that's the way it goes. The big Audience Award winners are: Burden, a story about a former Klansman being taken in by a Reverend starring Garrett Hedlund & Forest Whitaker, from director Andrew Heckler; The Sentence, a documentary by Rudy Valdez; and Search, the computer screen film (read my review) directed by Aneesh Chaganty. Other major winners include filmmakers Desiree Akhavan, Sara Colangelo, Christina Choe, Reed Morano, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Bing Liu, Derek Doneen, and Gustav Möller. View the full list from 2018. Here's the full release of winners with synopsis info next to each.

With the 2018 Sundance Film Festival concluding this weekend, the award winners have now been unveiled. Leading the pack of jury prize winners are Desiree Akhavan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post on the dramatic side and Derek Doneen’s Kailash on the documentary side. Ahead of our picks for our favorite films (update: see here), check out the winners below, with links to our coverage where available.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Simon Chin to:

Kailash / U.S.A. (Director: Derek Doneen, Producers: Davis Guggenheim, Sarah Anthony) — As a young man, Kailash Satyarthi promised himself that he would end child slavery in his lifetime. In the decades since, he has rescued more than eighty thousand children and built a global movement. This intimate and suspenseful film follows one man’s journey to do what many believed was impossible.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic...

The 2018 Sundance Film Festival drew to a close this evening with the announcement of the annual fest’s award winners, care of a free-wheeling ceremony hosted by Jason Mantzoukas, who stars in Hannah Fidell’s Sundance comedy “The Long Dumb Road.”

The Grand Jury Prizes, considered Sundance’s biggest honor, went to Desiree Akhavan’s “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” (U.S. Dramatic), Derek Doneen’s “Kailash” (U.S. Documentary), Tolga Karaçelik’s “Butterflies” (World Cinema Dramatic), and Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Sons” (World Cinema Documentary).

Read More:The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival

Each year, the festival’s juries give out directing prizes in each of the four competition categories. This year, each directing prize went to a female filmmaker, including Sara Colangelo, Alexandria Bombach, Sandi Tan, and Isold Uggadottir. The festival’s dedicated screenwriting prize, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award,...

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, starring Chloe Grace Moretz and set in a gay conversion therapy center that tries to turn several young lesbians straight, claimed the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which held its awards ceremony Saturday night. The Documentary Grand Jury Award was presented to Derek Doneen's Kailash, a portrait of Kailash Satyarthi, who has led a campaign to end child slavery.

Audience Award winners included the dramatic feature Burden, writer-director Andrew Heckler's film starring Garrett Hedlund about a Klansman whose encounters with a single mom and an African-American reverend teach ...

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, starring Chloe Grace Moretz and set in a gay conversion therapy center that tries to turn several young lesbians straight, claimed the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which held its awards ceremony Saturday night. The Documentary Grand Jury Award was presented to Derek Doneen's Kailash, a portrait of Kailash Satyarthi, who has led a campaign to end child slavery.

Audience Award winners included the dramatic feature Burden, writer-director Andrew Heckler's film starring Garrett Hedlund about a Klansman whose encounters with a single mom and an African-American reverend teach ...

The Guilty, Shirkers claim Park City honourees on Saturday night.

Sundance 2018 wrapped on Saturday (January 27) with juried awards for The Miseducation Of Cameron Post (pictured) in the U.S. Dramatic programme, Kailash in U.S. Documentary, Of Fathers And Sons in World Cinema Documentary, and Butterflies in World Cinema Dramatic.

In other highlights, Gustav Möller’s acclaimed Danish selection The Guilty won the World Cinema Audience award, while Sandi Tan collected the World Cinema Documentary directing award for Shirkers. Festival Favorite, A new award voted on by audiences, will be announced in the coming days.

The Sentence by Rudy Valdez was the audience favourite in the U.S. Documentary category, capping a fine day that saw HBO acquire Us rights from Cinetic Media.

“The scope and scale of this year’s festival – films, events, conversations – were invigorating,” Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam said. “I can’t wait to see how our incredible community will leverage these ten days...

We’ve seen many movies depict the presence of the Kkk in southern states, even in the organization’s later years when the group was shunned and went further underground. A socially conscious movie like “Burden” must be commended for “going there” despite the old school, preachy theatrics that it deploys. Andrew Heckler‘s film, based on a 1996 incident that happened in South Carolina, tries to tackle tired ground that has been explored more thoughtfully and artfully in the past.

Continue reading Captivating Performances Can’t Elevate Preachy, Routine Racism Drama ‘Burden’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Forest Whitaker says the path to racial healing begins with an acceptance of one’s mistakes — and needs to be followed by a discussion of how to right those wrongs. That’s exactly the theme of the new film “Burden,” the Andrew Heckler-directed drama now in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The 1990s-set film stars Garrett Hedlund as a young Ku Klux Klan disciple named Mike Burden, and Whitaker as a preacher who takes an interest in reforming him. Burden’s new girlfriend Judy (Andrea Riseborough) also helps him see the light, but not without cost. “The first thing that has to happen...

If Mike Burden didn’t actually exist, and writer and director Andrew Heckler created a fictional character, it wouldn’t work. But as it happens, Mike Burden was a Kkk member with a heart of gold who left the Klan because of the love of a good woman, eventually aligning himself with an African-American minister he was once prepared to assassinate, all while laboring mightily under the, get this, burden implied by his surname. It sounds too neat, too crazy, too scripted. But he is real, and so is Heckler’s decades-in-the-making biopic “Burden,” which isn’t neat, crazy, or too scripted.

Instead, what Heckler — a first-time filmmaker finally getting to make his passion project after nearly 20 years — offers is a hard-won redemption story that doesn’t cut corners and or look for easy answers. As Burden, Garrett Hedlund astonishes in a nuanced portrait of a man resistant to change,...

“This story is so deep and so meaningful that you just couldn’t resist telling it” said Burden writer/director Andrew Heckler on why he chose this project as his feature directorial debut. “It’s a story of hope and it’s a universal story that I felt really needed to be told.” Accompanying Heckler at Deadline’s Sundance Studio were film’s producer Robbie Brenner and cast Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Usher Raymond, Andrea Riseborough, Crystal Fox, and Austin…...

If Stanley Kramer were alive today, he would have wanted to make Burden. A socially conscious film of the old school, this appalling tale of continued Ku Klux Klan violence has been a dream project of veteran actor Andrew Heckler's virtually since the time the inciting incidents took place, in 1996.

The sincere historical and thematic concerns pertaining to persistent small-town Southern racism come through loud and clear, but the writer-director’s inexperience behind the camera is all too evident, as the painful but ultimately cathartic tale bumps along for more than two hours without ever finding an aesthetic form. All...

Here is an exclusive first look at Burden, the Andrew Heckler-directed fact based drama that stars Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Andrea Riseborough, Usher Raymond and Tom Wilkinson. The film premieres in competition tomorrow 6:15 at the PC Library, and is based on a true story about a taciturn repo man (Hedlund) who is rising through the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina. Fiercely loyal to the local Klan leader and toxic father figure (Tom Wilkinson), the…...

The highly anticipated Disney/Marvel Black Panther film has added Forest Whitaker to the cast. Out February 16, 2018, the Ryan Cooler-directed pic stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther, who made his debut in Captain America: Civil War. Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Andy Serkis and Winston Duke also co-star. Whitaker was recently cast in Andrew Heckler’s drama Burden and can be next seen in Paramount’s Arrival and Disney’s Rogue One: A Star Wa…...

Exclusive: English stage and film actress Andrea Riseborough (Nocturnal Animals, Birdman) has been set to star opposite Garrett Hedlund in Andrew Heckler’s indie feature Burden. She will play the love interest and lead role of Judy opposite Hedlund’s Mike Burden in the story about an orphan raised within the Ku Klux Klan who attempts to break away after the girl he falls in love with urges him to leave for a better life together. When the Klan seeks vengeance on Mike, a…...

Exclusive: As the film prepares to go into production, principal cast has been set for The Firm’s drama Burden, with Garrett Hedlund in the title role joined by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Oscar nominees Tom Wilkinson and Tess Harper and Hands of Stone‘s Usher Raymond IV. Written and directed by Andrew Heckler and inspired by true events, the film follows Mike Burden (Hedlund), an orphan raised within the Ku Klux Klan who attempts to break away when the girl he falls in…...

Relativity has picked up Burden, a racial drama from newcomer Andrew Heckler, and will use it to launch Relativity Squared, aka R2, its new specialty division. Run by Robbie Brenner, Relativity president of production and producer of the award-winning Matthew McConaughey drama Dallas Buyers Club, the division's mandate is to acquire and produce lower-budget, story-driven films with a unique point of view. Two other projects already in development at Relativity — The Secret Scripture, being directed by Jim Sheridan, and The Tribes of Palos Verdes, being directed by D.J. Caruso — are being transferred to the

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