JimMyron Ross.

Lance Hammer’s excellent 2008 drama, Ballast, is a perfect complement to Charles Burnett’s deeply felt 1977 masterpiece Killer of Sheep, but not just because they’re both dramas about struggling African-American families. Hammer, like Burnett, has made an indie film that feels completely authentic, without any of the quirkiness or forced idiosyncrasy that marks such much of American indie filmmaking.

The film follows three members of a Mississippi Delta family as they attempt to inch their lives forward in the wake of tragedy. The trio is played by non-actors JimMyron Ross, Tarra Riggs and Michael J. Smith, Sr. with amazing skill. Smith, in particular, is overwhelming as a man trying to awaken himself from his worst nightmare. Hammer’s vision is uncompromising, and he succeeds not because of plot twists but due to a sheer lack of pretense. One passage near the end is every bit as moving as Vittorio De Sica’s legendarily touching conclusion to Umberto D.

ALSO:

• The official Ballast site.
• Manohla Dargis’ review of the film.
• Dennis Lim’s feature article about Ballast in the New York Times.