A Different Fate Awaits ‘The Ballast’

Lance Hammer has hatched together a plan to be much more involved in the theater/DVD release of his first feature, pulling out of an IFC deal that had been set in stone last February. His riskier, grassroots campaign with come about via a deal with Strand Releasing and Required Viewing.

Receiving acclaim at both the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, The Ballast was a no-brainer pick up, but Hammer wasn’t willing to gamble on IFC Films‘ indie and foreign film track record and fate alone.

Hoping for attention in more than the core markets, the idea would be to get more press attention before and during a New York City release in the final teir of the calender and then expand into further cities. IFC had the film down for a troubling end of August release.

Set in the Mississippi Delta flatscape, this sees a middle-aged man immobilized
by grief in the darkness of a small rural home. If, among other possibilities,
the first can be regarded as an image of hope for “what can be”, and the second
an image of regret for “what has become”, it is the emotional expanse between
these poles that successive images will seek to reconcile.

Although
12-years-old, the boy, James, is already beginning to stumble under the weight
of poverty endemic to the Delta. As Marlee, his single mother, struggles to
sustain their tenuous existence through long hours at a demeaning and poorly
paying job, James is left to his own devices. He wanders. His venturings take
him into the natural landscape, where he finds solace, and, increasingly, into
the turbulent orbit of a group of local teenagers whom he seeks to impress. His
willingness to perform the occasional drug drop with his motorcycle bodes well
for his acceptance. Patiently, he nurtures this goal. One morning James points
his motorcycle in a new direction. He travels fifteen miles to the home of
Lawrence, the middle-aged man. Though it is unclear what motivates the cruelty
the boy will inflict upon this devastated soul, familiarly suggests a shared
history.