Independent Lens
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At Camp Widow, every attendee, volunteer, speaker, and staff member has lost their partner; together they find camaraderie and unexpected joy.
Wild Hogs and Saffron
A wild hog hunt in the Ozarks leads to an unexpected dialogue between Iranian-American filmmaker Andy Sarjahani and his childhood friend as they try to navigate a polarized world.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- September 16, 2024
- Length
- 18 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Short-Form Open Call
Producer/Director
Andy Sarjahani
Andy Sarjahani is an Iranian-American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer raised in the Ozarks of Arkansas. He is interested in people, our relationship to place, and how that shapes our worldview. His current work focuses on exploring nuanced narratives from the American South. He often watches Thelma & Louise with his dog, June.
Producer
Jennifer Samani
Jennifer Samani is a New Orleans-based producer with Iranian/Jewish roots, whose work explores themes of identity, community, and belonging. Stints as a nonprofit fundraiser, political campaign manager, and architecture student inform her perspective and approach to documentary filmmaking. Her second home is in the stacks at the library.
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The Film
Iranian-American filmmaker Andy Sarjahani and his childhood friend Bubba Samuels grew up together in Pope County, Arkansas. Over the years, they bonded over their love for dogs and adventuring in the hills, woods, and creeks of their native Ozarks.
After 9/11, an 18-year-old Andy must reconcile the identity he hid to assimilate as a boy, while Bubba takes a diverging path. In the years following, anti-Middle Eastern rhetoric from the community they grew up in fuels a journey of self-examination as Andy moves through life straddling a cultural fault line, attempting to reconcile his two worlds.
In Wild Hogs and Saffron, the two old friends reconnect in their native Ozarks for a wild hog hunt where unexpected conversations unfold that have a lasting impact on their friendship. Set against the backdrop of the natural world, masculine vulnerability within a traditionally hypermasculine space drives the story as the two men cross new thresholds attempting to make sense of a polarized world.
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