Invention
US Premiere with co-writer/director Courtney Stephens and co-writer/actor Callie Hernandez in person
Friday, April 4, 5:00 p.m. @ 2220 Arts + Archives (w/Q&A)
Saturday, April 5, 2:45 p.m., @ Vidiots MUBI Micro Cinema
Director: Courtney Stephens
United States, 2025, 72 min, DCP
In the aftermath of a conspiracy-minded father’s unexpected death, his daughter receives his patent for an experimental healing device. Featuring archive from actress and filmmaker Callie Hernandez's actual late father, Invention explores the process of grieving a complicated parent, and the filmmaking itself becomes a part of the process.
A deeply personal and lovingly crafted Berkshires-set mystery, Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez’ entrancing docu-fiction follows Carrie (Hernandez in a Locarno award-winning performance), a young woman who inherits a mysterious patent for an experimental healing device after the unexpected death of her father. As she grapples with the emotional and logistical aftermath of his passing, Carrie meets various eccentric characters (played by non-professional actors and filmmakers, including Joe Swanberg and Caveh Zahedi) who knew her father and reveal more to her about his alternative, somewhat conspiratorial ideas. Shot on gritty Super 16mm and weaving archival footage of Hernandez’s real-life father into its fictional narrative, Invention playfully interrogates the mythologies we create about our loved ones after they leave us.
Official Selection: Locarno Film Festival, 2024 (Winner: Best Performance, Concorso Cineasti del Presente)
Cast: Callie Hernandez, Sahm McGlynn, Tony Torn, Lucy Kaminsky, James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Joe Swanberg, Caveh Zahedi
Producers: Callie Hernandez and Courtney Stephens
Writers: Callie Hernandez, Courtney Stephens
Cinematographer: Rafael Palacio Illingsworth
Editor: Courtney Stephens
Sound: Emile Klein