Monday Happenings

Movies

-- Ballast, the first feature by director Lance Hammer, has generated considerable buzz on the festival circuit. It's a spare and realist depiction African Americans living in the impoverished Mississippi delta that has won comparisons to the Dardenne brothers and Charles Burnett's classic Killer of Sheep (1977). The film used non-professional actors from the towns it depicts and features a script that Hammer developed in collaboration with his cast. Tonight is the film's Boston premiere, and Hammer will be on hand. Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, 7 p.m. $10.

Music

-- Ratatat's music forces listeners to wonder whether they are in a video game or a European disco. The NYC duo is mysteriously popular enough to warrant a two night residency at the Paradise. Performing with Panther and E*Rock. Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., 7 p.m. $20.

Kabuki

-- Kabuki is a four century-old form of Japanese musical theatre and an official Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, according to UNESCO. It's not often that Bostonians have a chance to observe the art form, and it's even rarer when it's free, which is the case this afternoon as NEC's Intercultural Institute welcomes Kyoto's Research Society for Japanese Traditional Music and Performance. Brown Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 4 p.m. Free.

Still from Ballast courtesy Harvard Film Archive.