Mubi will exclusively debut Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez’s semi-autobiographical conspiracy film “Invention” on streaming in North America. The specialty streamer will release the feature on its platform during the summer, following its limited theatrical engagement beginning Friday in New York City.
A collaboration between writer-director Stephens and writer and star Hernandez, the 16mm-shot “Invention” incorporates archival footage of Hernandez’s real father, an alternative medicine physician who died of COVID in 2021. Hernandez plays “Carrie,” a woman who must navigate her own grief after she inherits an odd healing doohickey from her late father. The film’s cast also features other indie filmmakers, such as Caveh Zahedi, Joe Swanberg and James N. Kienitz Wilkins.
“Invention” debuted at the 2024 edition of the Locarno Film Festival, where Hernandez won the Pardo for best performance in the Filmmakers of the Present Section of the fest. Since Locarno, the film had its North American premiere at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies earlier this month, then bowed on the East Coast at New Directors/New Films.
Across the pond, “Invention” will get a week-long theatrical run in London during the summer at the Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of the org’s Off-Circuit program.
The film comes from Jacket Weather and Hernandez’s Neurotika Haus banner, which co-produced Pete Ohs’ “The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick,” a premiere at SXSW earlier this year. Hernandez founded Neurotika Haus after more than a decade of screen acting, with credits including “La La Land,” “Alien: Covenant” and “Under the Silver Lake.” Stephens co-directed the documentary “The American Sector,” released in 2021.
