Lance Hammer’s debut feature Ballast is garnering positive feedback here at Sundance (see Karina’s full review here). The film is a carefully paced drama about suicide, youth, and the emotional successes and failures that bind people together. Hammer’s influence was his setting, the Mississippi Delta. He cast only local actors, most of them with no professional experience. In this interview Hammer and stars Micheal Smith, Tarra Riggs and Johnny McPhail talk about working without a script, the bonds formed on set, and why throwing away the script is the first step toward truth in film.

Ballast interviews