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THRESHOLDS OF MASCULINITY presents films that transcend stereotypical depictions of Iranian male identity. While the heightened marginalization of women in Iran since the 1979 revolution has detrimentally affected all aspects of their daily lives, men have traditionally faced far fewer restrictions. As women continue to defy and push against these imposed barriers, many Iranian men are left questioning their own place within the shifting landscapes of their society. Amir Azizi, Farid Haji, Andy Sarjahani, and Vahid Vakilifar’s films engage with these male experiences, both in Iran and the American diaspora.
Azizi’s narrative film follows two young men and their dogs as they search for belonging amidst Iran’s economic turmoil. In his documentary, Sarjahani reflects on his Iranian heritage with a childhood American friend while navigating life as a second generation immigrant on a pig farm in Arkansas. A requiem for a friend—Farid Haji’s short film follows a male student from a gender segregated university who helps a fellow student reach his dreams of being in a party, even after he dies. In Vahid Vakilifar’s Gesher, Ghobad, Jahan and Nezam, three men in pursuit of a better life, leave home and head for Oslouyeh, one of the richest gas producing regions in the south of Iran. However, the difficult living conditions together with the low salaries oblige them and others to find shelter along the disused sections of the pipeline. The group of workers manage to create an atmosphere of camaraderie despite the difficult conditions with which they are faced.
Although male identity is approached from different cultural and geographic realities, the common ground is evident through a multiplicity of parallels within these films. Whether shedding a light on the dynamics of male friendship or revealing the deep relations that the characters have towards each other, the films reckon with the prevalence of vulnerability within male identity that extends beyond language and place.
THRESHOLDS OF MASCULINITY is curated by Gelareh Kiazand and is co-presented by ArteEast and Museum of the Moving Image. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. A selection of the program will be presented in-person at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the Infinite Beauty Series, on May 10, 2025 at 3pm. The screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Andy Sarjahani, curator Gelareh Kiazand, and ArteEast Programs Director, Lila Nazemian. The full THRESHOLDS OF MASCULINITY program will be available online on artearchive.org from May 8 -18, 2025.
Original program materials by ArteEast are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( CC BY 4.0.). This does not apply to films or third-party content.
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 our polarized world.
About the Filmmaker:
Andy Sarjahani is an Iranian-American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer raised in a working class community outside the Arkansas Ozarks. He is interested in people, our relationship to place, and how that shapes our worldview. His work focuses on human ecology, the natural world, class, the American South and the experience of the Iranian diaspora, separately and when they overlap. His recent cinematography credits include Academy Award-nominated The Barber of Little Rock (The New Yorker, 2024), Southern Storytellers (PBS, 2023), and Untitled Brent Renaud Documentary (HBO, post-production).
- Year2024
- Runtime18 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited States
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorAndy Sarjahani
- ProducerAndy Sarjahani, Jennifer Samani
- Executive ProducerCarrie Lozano, Lois Vossen, Courtney Pledger, Keith Maitland
- Co-ProducerPamela Torno
- FilmmakerAndy Sarjahani
- EditorIvete Lucas
THRESHOLDS OF MASCULINITY presents films that transcend stereotypical depictions of Iranian male identity. While the heightened marginalization of women in Iran since the 1979 revolution has detrimentally affected all aspects of their daily lives, men have traditionally faced far fewer restrictions. As women continue to defy and push against these imposed barriers, many Iranian men are left questioning their own place within the shifting landscapes of their society. Amir Azizi, Farid Haji, Andy Sarjahani, and Vahid Vakilifar’s films engage with these male experiences, both in Iran and the American diaspora.
Azizi’s narrative film follows two young men and their dogs as they search for belonging amidst Iran’s economic turmoil. In his documentary, Sarjahani reflects on his Iranian heritage with a childhood American friend while navigating life as a second generation immigrant on a pig farm in Arkansas. A requiem for a friend—Farid Haji’s short film follows a male student from a gender segregated university who helps a fellow student reach his dreams of being in a party, even after he dies. In Vahid Vakilifar’s Gesher, Ghobad, Jahan and Nezam, three men in pursuit of a better life, leave home and head for Oslouyeh, one of the richest gas producing regions in the south of Iran. However, the difficult living conditions together with the low salaries oblige them and others to find shelter along the disused sections of the pipeline. The group of workers manage to create an atmosphere of camaraderie despite the difficult conditions with which they are faced.
Although male identity is approached from different cultural and geographic realities, the common ground is evident through a multiplicity of parallels within these films. Whether shedding a light on the dynamics of male friendship or revealing the deep relations that the characters have towards each other, the films reckon with the prevalence of vulnerability within male identity that extends beyond language and place.
THRESHOLDS OF MASCULINITY is curated by Gelareh Kiazand and is co-presented by ArteEast and Museum of the Moving Image. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. A selection of the program will be presented in-person at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the Infinite Beauty Series, on May 10, 2025 at 3pm. The screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Andy Sarjahani, curator Gelareh Kiazand, and ArteEast Programs Director, Lila Nazemian. The full THRESHOLDS OF MASCULINITY program will be available online on artearchive.org from May 8 -18, 2025.
Original program materials by ArteEast are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( CC BY 4.0.). This does not apply to films or third-party content.
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 our polarized world.
About the Filmmaker:
Andy Sarjahani is an Iranian-American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer raised in a working class community outside the Arkansas Ozarks. He is interested in people, our relationship to place, and how that shapes our worldview. His work focuses on human ecology, the natural world, class, the American South and the experience of the Iranian diaspora, separately and when they overlap. His recent cinematography credits include Academy Award-nominated The Barber of Little Rock (The New Yorker, 2024), Southern Storytellers (PBS, 2023), and Untitled Brent Renaud Documentary (HBO, post-production).
- Year2024
- Runtime18 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited States
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorAndy Sarjahani
- ProducerAndy Sarjahani, Jennifer Samani
- Executive ProducerCarrie Lozano, Lois Vossen, Courtney Pledger, Keith Maitland
- Co-ProducerPamela Torno
- FilmmakerAndy Sarjahani
- EditorIvete Lucas