SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
WINNER: BEST DIRECTOR / BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMINATED: GRAND JURY PRIZE
INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS (6 NOMINATIONS)
BEST FEATURE / BEST DIRECTOR / BEST FEMALE LEAD / BEST SUPPORTING MALE / FIRST SCREENPLAY / BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
NAACP IMAGE AWARD
NOMINATED: OUTSTANDING INDEPENDENT MOTION PICTURE
GOTHAM AWARDS
WINNER: BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR
NOMINATED: BEST FILM / BEST ENSEMBLE CAST / BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
WINNER: TFCA AWARD (BEST FIRST FEATURE)
BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
NOMINATED: GOLDEN BEAR AWARD (BEST FEATURE FILM)

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 (Micheal 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 her 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 forced by circumstance to seek solace in the most unlikely of places.

SPECIAL FEATURES
- Director supervised high-definition digital transfer from the 35mm interpositive.
- Ballast Scene Development - A 37-minute making-of feature charting the evolution of several scenes through the improvisational conflict sessions and two-month rehearsal process that gave form to the final film.
- Original theatrical trailer.
- Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.
- A new essay by film critic Amy Taubin.