Mubi has announced it will exclusively stream Invention, a semi-autobiographical conspiracy film by Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez, in North America this summer. The film will first have a limited theatrical run, beginning this Friday at New York City’s Metrograph.
A collaboration between writer-director Stephens and writer-star Hernandez, Invention was shot on 16mm and includes archival footage of Hernandez’s late father, an alternative medicine physician who passed away from COVID in 2021. Hernandez portrays “Carrie,” a woman dealing with grief after inheriting a mysterious healing device from her father. The film also features indie filmmakers such as Caveh Zahedi, Joe Swanberg, and James N. Kienitz Wilkins.
Invention premiered at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, where Hernandez won the Pardo for best performance in the Filmmakers of the Present section. Since then, the film had its North American premiere at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies earlier this month and was showcased at New Directors/New Films on the East Coast.
The film will also be screened in London for two weeks this summer at the Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of its Off-Circuit program.
Produced by Stephens’ Jacket Weather and Hernandez’s Neurotika Haus banners, Invention comes after Hernandez’s co-production of Pete Ohs’ The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year. Hernandez, known for her acting roles in La La Land, Alien: Covenant, and Under the Silver Lake, founded Neurotika Haus after more than a decade in film. Stephens is known for her documentary work, including Terra Femme and The American Sector, and her latest film, John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, narrated by Chloë Sevigny.
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