Sundance 2018 Preview: BurdenPosted by Wilson Morales
January 21, 2018
Making its World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival is Burden, starring Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wilkinson, Usher Raymond, Tess Harper, Crystal R. Fox, Dexter Darden & Austin Hebert.
Written and directed by Andrew Heckler, the film is based on an inspiring true story of hope for overcoming racial hate in America. It centers on Mike Burden (played by Hedlund), a rising leader in the Ku Klux Klan and founder of the first KKK museum, who attempts to break away from the Klan when the woman he falls in love with urges him to leave for the better life they can build together. When the Klan seeks Mike out for vengeance, an African-American reverend named David Kennedy (Whitaker) takes in Mike, his girlfriend and her son, accepting them into their community in the face of tremendous risk. Burden and Kennedy form an unlikely friendship as Mike moves from a life of ignorance and bigotry to one of love and tolerance.
Burden has been in the works for more than a decade, with things seriously getting in motion in 2015 under producer Robbie Brenner, who brought the project with her when she left Relativity to join the newly reconstituted The Firm in September 2015.
Burden premiere on Jan. 21 at 6:15pm.
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