The San Francisco International Film Festival starts a week from Thursday. Get your tickets now!

Everything Strange and New, which is set in Oakland, features a married protagonist (Jerry McDaniel) with two kids who finds himself barely able to make ends meet, and his marriage is "buckling under the weight of disillusionment and parental exhaustion." The female lead is played by the Bay Area's own Beth Lisick.

The film was described by Variety as "a first glimpse at what post-recession independent cinema could look like, offering a revisionist, glass-half-empty take on the American Dream." (Hasn't independent cinema always played out like that? Don't get us wrong, we love indie films. -- SFist)

Everything Strange and New was directed by Frazer Bradshaw, who also did all of the camera work. "The film is moored by lingering, artfully composed shots of urban traffic, nondescript rooftops and rundown streets." The soundtrack features East Bay musicians, Kent Sparling, who created the hushed, electro-acoustic score, and Dan Plonsey, performing a recurrent explosive composition on saxophone.

Everything Strange and New | SFIFF | Kabuki Sundance, 1881 Post St @ Fillmore | Sunday, April 26 at 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 28 at 4:15 p.m., Saturday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. | General admission: $12.50, Members: $10