Sean Baker’s fans would hail him as a pioneer of empathetic cinema in the modern day, and his detractors would dismiss him as a two-bit purveyor of poverty porn. One thing that neither side can deny, however, is that Sean Baker has become one of the defining voices of independent American cinema in the 21st century. A filmmaker who’s taken his cues from all over the history of the medium—from kitchen sink realism to exploitation films—and melded them together into his proper vision, Baker’s world is one distinctly defined by its proximity to our very own.

Looking across the totality of Baker’s filmography, there are certainly recurring themes and motifs that make their way from beginning to end—poverty, resilience, Karren Karagulian—but each one of his films stands on its own in their idiosyncrasies and how they choose to tackle these ideas. No two Baker protagonists are interchangeable,...