Andy Sarjahani is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer raised in a working class community outside the Arkansas Ozarks. He holds an M.S. in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems from Montana State University and left a career path in academia to honor his passion for cinema and tell stories with a camera. He is interested in people, our relationship to place, and how that shapes our worldview. His recent cinematography credits include Academy Award-nominated The Barber of Little Rock (The New Yorker, 2024), Academy Award-nominated Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO, SXSW Audience Award 2025), This is Not a Drill (Patagonia Films, Telluride 2025) The Gas Station Attendant (PBS, Sheffield Doc Fest, 2025), and Southern Storytellers (PBS, 2023).

His recent Director credits include The Smallest Power (The New Yorker, 2024); Wild Hogs and Saffron (Independent Lens, 2024); American Grail: A Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (2024), and Black Ag (Reel South, 2024). His films have screened at Sundance, Museum of the Moving Image, The Hammer Museum, and numerous Oscar-qualifying festivals including Big Sky, Hot Springs, New Orleans, Woodstock, Blackstar, Cleveland, Palm Springs, Aspen Shorts, River Run, and Florida Film Festivals.

His personal work has been supported by The Pulitzer Center, ITVS, The Gotham, HBO Documentary Films, Doris Duke Foundation, The New Yorker, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), DOC NYC, New Orleans Film Society, Southern Documentary Fund, Reel South, and PBS. 

He was a 2022 New Orleans Film Society Emerging Voices Fellow, 2023 CAAM Fellow, 2023 PBS Wyncote Fellow and 2024 HBO/Gotham Documentary Development Fellow.

Contact

andy.sarjahani@gmail.com