Sundance winner ‘Burden’ set for fall release from 101 Studios

Newly formed 101 Studios has announced the release date for their forthcoming film Burden, written and directed by first-time filmmaker Andrew Heckler, will open in theaters for a limited launch on November 1st with a continued rollout through the month of November.

The theatrical release of Burden has been edited down 20 minutes from the film’s premiere at Sundance in 2018 where it won the festival’s Audience Award. The film also won the Audience Award at the Nantucket Film Festival.

Burden tells the true story of Michael “Mike” Burden (Garrett Hedlund), an ardent young member of the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan who rose to the rank of Grand Dragon – and walked away from all of it with the help of a new love and an unlikely ally, the African American religious leader and social activist Reverend David Kennedy (Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker). The film’s cast also includes 8-time Grammy Award winner Usher, Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough, Academy Award nominee Tess Harper, and Crystal Fox. It is produced by Robbie Brenner and Bill Kenwright. Five-time Grammy award winner Chris Stapleton will release an original song for the film self-titled “Burden.”

“Even though it was written over twenty years ago, unfortunately, Burden is more timely than ever. Now in a time when the world has become so polarized and divided by ethnicity, race and religion, Burden can deliver a powerful message of how extremes can join together to overcome and resolve our differences and hatred through love and tolerance. I cannot be more excited to get that message out there to audiences with Studio 101.”

Director Andrew Heckler

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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