Ballast

A double prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival and one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2008, Ballast is a stunningly evocative story of personal catastrophe and communal redemption. In the cold winter light of the Mississippi Delta, three lonely people stumble under the weight of a shared tragedy. Lawrence (Michael J. Smith, Sr.) is paralyzed with grief after the loss of his twin brother. Twelve-year-old James (Jim Myron Ross) drifts into the perilous orbit of local teenagers while his single mother, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), is too exhausted from menial job to interpret the clues. When sudden violence forces mother and son to flee their home in the night, they alight desperately on Lawrence's property. Though this provides safe harbor, it rekindles the fury of a bitter, longstanding conflict. Writer-director Lance Hammer and his gifted cast of local, non-professional actors have created an unflinching, profoundly humane story of lost souls forces by circumstance to seek solace in the most unlikely of places.

Director: Lance Hammer
Producer: Lance Hammer
Producer: Nina Parikh
Actor: Jim Myron Ross
Actor: Johnny McPhail
Actor: Michael J. Smith Sr.
Actor: Michael J. Smith
Actor: Sr.
Actor: Tarra Riggs
Actor: Ventress Bonner
Actor: Michael Smith
Actor: Jean Paul Guillory
Actor: Jimez Alexander
Actor: Lawrence Jackson
Actor: Marcus Alexander
Actor: Marquice Alexander