An unorthodox essay film on the renowned but controversial painter, Philip Guston. Ballad interweaves Guston’s biography, influences, and philosophical approach to art with Cohen’s deeply personal engagement with the man and his work. Balancing elements as disparate as Krazy Kat cartoons, the 19th Century Russian author Babel, and Guston’s lifelong grappling with racism and injustice, the film is an unusual critical immersion and a free-wheeling celebration of painting’s radical potential.