Chris "Sandman" Sand is a rappin' cowboy from Dunn Center, North Dakota (population: 120 and shrinking). He drives a semi, plays the guitar and raps. Sandman looks like Woody Guthrie but sings like LL Cool J. Roll Out, Cowboy follows the 39-year-old country/hip-hop musician as he tours the American West, performing for rural towns who might not have heard hip-hop before. We witness bank break-ups and town groupies: even a brief flirtation with truck-driving. Sandman's story is the struggle of an artist trying to make a buck. In a tough economy, can your American dream still carry a tune?

It is a visceral rabbit hole toward the authentic self. Filmmaker Elizabeth Lawrence takes an emotional, first-person detour inward. Oscillating through saneness and psychosis; debris and lucidity, the film stares at depression dead-on.

A new boarder who has no money is expected to pay for her room by alternate means.

A new boarder who has no money is expected to pay for her room by alternate means.