Invention

TIFF65: Greek Premiere

In the aftermath of a conspiracy-minded father’s sudden death, his daughter inherits his patent for an experimental healing device. Featuring archives from Callie Hernandez's late father, Invention explores the process of grieving a complicated parent, and the filmmaking itself becomes a part of the process. In the words of its creators, Invention is an exploration of the fictions and fantasies that often follow loss and allow us to bear disappointment – both as individuals and as a public in times of national decline.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Courtney Stephens, co-creator: Callie Hernandez

Script: Callie Hernandez, Courtney Stephens

Cinematography: Rafael Palacio Illingworth

Editing: Dounia Sichov, Courtney Stephens

Sound: Emile Klein

Music: Twig Harper, Sarah Davachi, Cate Kennan, Thomas E. Dimock

Actors: Callie Hernandez, Sahm McGlynn, Lucy Kaminsky, Tony Torn, James N. Kienitz Wilkins

Production: Neurotika Haus, Jacket Weather

Producers: Callie Hernandez, Courtney Stephens

Executive producer: Molly Hernandez

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: USA

Production Year: 2024

Duration: 72'

Contact: Indox Films

Awards/Distinctions: Best Performance (Filmmakers of the Present section) – Locarno IFF 2024

Courtney Stephens

Courtney Stephens is a writer/director. The American Sector, her documentary (co-directed with Pacho Velez) about fragments of the Berlin Wall transplanted to the U.S., was named one of the best films of 2021 in The New Yorker. Her essay film, Terra Femme, composed of amateur travel footage shot by women in the early 20th century, was a New York Times critic's pick and premiered at the Museum of Modern Art. It has toured widely as a live performance. Her films have been exhibited at The National Gallery of Art, The Barbican, BOZAR, BAMPFA, Eye Filmmuseum, Royal Geographical Society, Walker Art Center, the Thailand Biennale, and in film festivals including the Berlinale, Viennale, IDFA, Hong Kong, SXSW, and the New York Film Festival. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship to India, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Wexner Center. She is a graduate of the AFI, and previously worked as an assistant to Terrence Malick. In addition to co-curating the miniature cinema Veggie Cloud since 2014, she has organized film screenings for The Getty, Flaherty NYC, Human Resources, and Museum of the Moving Image. Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Film Comment, Cabinet, Filmmaker, and The New Inquiry. She is currently working on a feature doc about dolphin scientist and psychedelics pioneer John C. Lilly, co-directed with Michael Almereyda.

Filmography

2011 White Gloves (short)
2017 Ida Western Exile (doc, short)
2020 The American Sector (doc)
2021 Terra Femme (doc)
2024 Invention (co-direction)

Callie Hernandez

Callie Hernandez is an actress, writer, filmmaker and producer with work spanning over a decade. Her first role as an actress was in Terrence Malick’s Song to Song followed by Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant, Damien Chazelle's La La Land, Alan Palomo’s Meutrière (2023) in collaboration with Sean Price Williams among many others. In 2022, she founded Neurotika Haus Films, an in-house film studio, which yielded Invention (2024), Pete Ohs’ dark comedy Untitled Tick Movie (2025) — in which she acted, wrote and produced alongside Jeremy O’ Harris — and Olivia Erlanger’s Appliance, which premiered at CAMH in April 2024. Hernandez made her stage debut in Erlanger’s experimental play Humour in the Water Coolant at ICA London in June 2024. She premiered her original live performance piece Arabella’s Foot (2023) at Canada Gallery in NYC, in which Hernandez arranged flowers with her feet. She is the director of Marina Allen’s music video Deep Fake (2024) and experimental short films Rodeo (2021) and Wet Nurse (2024).