Ballast and The Pleasure of Being Robbed - Filmmaker discussions in NYC

These both look great - I wish I were able to make either screening this weekend!

BALLAST followed by Q&A with writer/director Lance Hammer



Saturday and Sunday, 10/4 and 10/5 at the Film Forum
After 8:00 PM shows

A young boy drifts through the spare flatlands of a wintry Mississippi township and a middle-aged man sits in his rural home, frozen in grief after his brother’s suicide. These striking images set in motion a riveting story of three people trying to reposition their lives after experiencing a traumatic loss. Lance Hammer has been compared to the Dardenne Brothers, for the assured hand with which he tells a delicate, quietly unfolding story using understated means and non-professionals from the Mississippi Delta. “The one indisputably great film at Sundance ’08… (This) poetic and profound movie transcends categories and announces the arrival of a major new filmmaker.” — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.

THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED followed by Q&A with writer/director Josh Safdie



Saturday, 10/4 at IFC Center
After 6:20 and 8:20 PM shows

The story of a young woman whose compulsive curiosity leads to bold, elaborate acts of theft, Josh Safdies THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED is a beguiling blend of casual comedy and subtle, unsettling mystery. The film, the debut feature by 24-year-old New York writer-director Safdie, was the Closing Night film of the 2008 Cannes Directors Fortnight and the only film from the U.S. to play in that section.