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David Burris (sometimes credited as Dave Burris or David Allen Burris) is an American filmmaker, television producer, writer, and musician. He directed the feature filmThe World Made Straight (Millennium Entertainment) and the short filmThe Side of the Road, which he also wrote. He was the executive producer on CBS'sSurvivor[1] and a writer on the USA / Sci-fi seriesGood vs. Evil. As a musician, he was a founding member and songwriter for Sire/Warner recording artistJolene and a recording and touring member of Mercury/Polygram recording artist The Veldt.
Burris was born inDurham, raised in Raleigh, and went to college in Chapel Hill,North Carolina.[1] His father, Craven Allen Burris, was the dean of Raleigh'sMeredith College and traveled overseas often for academic programs. David accompanied him on these journeys, spending considerable portions of his childhood in London while also traveling across the UK and Europe. His mother, Jane Russell Burris, was a high school librarian and instilled in him a deep love of literature and storytelling from an early age.
Burris did a year of study at theUniversity of Edinburgh but ultimately took his bachelor's degree fromUNC–Chapel Hill and his master's degree fromWake Forest University. At UNC's student television station, Burris formed a sketch comedy troupe with future filmmakersPeyton Reed andJohn Schultz, among others. They produced a series called The World of Fun that was heavily influenced byMonty Python's Flying Circus andSecond City Television.
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Burris moved to New York after college where he worked on a number of films for such NY indie-film scene figures asAbel Ferrara,Jim Jarmusch, andPaul Auster. In 1992 he produced the short filmHoward Black starringJohn C. Reilly, followed byThe Side of the Road in 1994, starringJared Harris and Stephen Gevedon.
In 1992 Burris hooked up with childhood friends Danny and Daniel Chavis and Marvin Levy to join Mercury/Polygram recording artists and soulful, shoegaze innovators The Veldt for their major label debut Afrodisiac. This led to numerous tours of the country, most notably with British ethereal rock legendsThe Cocteau Twins. Burris left the band as a full-time member in 1995 but continues to perform with the band when called upon.
In 1996 Burris formed the atmospheric American rock band Jolene with first cousin John Crooke. After four albums and multiple tours of Europe, The United Kingdom and the US, the band has taken an "extended break" since playing a final show at the classic London venue The Borderline in 2002 – a fledgling iteration of the bandBloc Party opened the show. Jolene's songs penned by Burris feature on the soundtracks of the filmsElection andA Simple Plan.
In 1999 Burris moved to Los Angeles and took a job writing on the SyFy/USA seriesGood vs. Evil with fellow CaroliniansJonas andJosh Pate.
Burris eventually moved on to the CBS blockbuster seriesSurvivor where he began as a supervising producer before taking on the role of "Show Runner" as the program's Executive Producer.[2] In his time there he created hundreds of hours of TV and filmed on location in dozens of countries around the world.
In 2013 Burris returned to the world of feature film. He directed and producedThe World Made Straight, an adaptation ofRon Rash's award-winningnovel of the same name.[3] Burris' producing partners on the picture were fellow North Carolina natives Todd Labarowski of Dreambridge Films and Michael Wrenn (currently based in Sydney). Shot entirely on location in the mountains around Asheville, North Carolina, the film starsJeremy Irvine,Noah Wyle,Minka Kelly,Adelaide Clemens,Steve Earle, andHaley Joel Osment. It was released theatrically in 2015 by Millennium Entertainment.
The New York Times calls the World Made Straight "a coming-of-age story in which codes and vendettas loom larger than the outside world."[4]The New York Post describes the film as "Southern noir with literary heft" and having "a neo-Faulknerian atmosphere of indelible sin in a story that rises above cliché..."[5] The film's soundtrack features a score by NC psych-folk bandMegafaun and songs fromEllie Goulding,The Frames,Algia Mae Hinton,Susan Cowsill,The Connells,Hotel Lights and others.
