It has been a busy year over here at Sprinkle Lab, and we wanted to take a moment to share one of our recent highlights outside of all the great client work and day to day shenanigans … the San Francisco International Film Festival! We set out to make the most of Sprinkle Lab’s first ‘fest’ experience, so we attended as many films and events as possible to take in all the glory. It’s a full time job to watch 2-4 movies per day, attend events at night, drink heavily … we were thrilled to jump in and fill our minds and hearts with the possibilities of the moving image!

There were many standouts definitely worth watching. The beautifully shot Icelandic film Of Horses and Men juxtaposed the stories of a small rural community’s animals as if they were people, and its people sometimes acting like animals … darkly hilarious.

The documentary The Overnighters, starts with a kind hearted pastor giving refuge to prospecting migrants hoping for work in a midwest fracking boomtown. With uncanny access to the subject, the filmmaker captures it all as the church and community slowly turn on their leader’s idealistic humanity, bringing to light a man of complex and struggling character. Some polarized responses were stirred when the pastor himself showed up for the post-screening q&a session!

With Return To Homs, a small hand-held camera documents citizen protest in a Syrian city. It follows the transformation of a local 19 year old soccer star with charisma and energy to spare, who becomes a de-facto leader of the resistance when the conflict devolves into civil war. The violence that has continued in Syria for years is brought into sharp focus in this documentary, winning it the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

But our favorites ended up being docs that stepped beyond the standard form. Stop The Pounding Heart, Manakamana, 20,000 Days On Earth, Coast of Death, Happiness, and Soul Food Stories all offered striking portraits of people and places, while being told in bold new ways.

All in all, we met exciting new filmmakers, brushed shoulders with legends, and drank free martinis. Kudos to all the fine folks at the San Francisco Film Society for locking down great free booze sponsors, and for putting on a great event for Bay Area filmmakers and fans to connect and enjoy beautiful new films!

~ Bradley & Crew