Filmmaker Andy Sarjahani will tell you the world is no place for boxes. Growing up with his feet set in seemingly disparate cultural arenas-a rural Ozarks upbringing, an Iranian heritage-he’s long understood that lived experiences often flout prepackaged narratives. That desire to explore such narratives led the Russellville, Arkansas, native to leave the world of academia to tell stories about his home state, both as a cinematographer (notably, for the Oscar-nominated The Barber of Little Rock) and as a director of his own documentary work. He has since turned a nuanced spotlight on a range of topics related to his roots, including Iran’s women-led uprising (The Smallest Power), the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker (American Grail), and the construction of an industrial hog farm in the Buffalo National River’s watershed (Downstream People).