INVENTION

INVENTION is a film directed by Courtney Stephens, made in collaboration with actress and filmmaker Callie Hernandez. It explores loss, inheritance and the stories we create to make sense of disappearance. After the sudden death of her father, an alternative health doctor known for his belief in conspiracies, his daughter inherits the patent for a mysterious healing device. As she tries to understand what the device is and what it was meant to do, the film follows her search through memory, media and the traces her father left behind.

The filmmakers began working together after both had recently lost their fathers. Their conversations focused on how grief often comes with bureaucracy, doubt and a desire for meaning. Invention explores how fantasy, and by extension conspiracy, can function as a way to process absence. The film blends fiction with real television footage of Hernandez’s actual father, who appeared on several occasions on American talk shows from the 1990s through 2020.

While rooted in a personal story, the film also reflects on how fringe beliefs, alternative medicine and inherited mythologies shape not only family legacies but also the American imagination. Invention premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where Callie Hernandez received the Pardo for Best Performance.

This screening is the thirteenth part of the ongoing OS MUTANTES series at WORM. Inspired by Theresa Villaverde's film of the same name, the series uses the concept of the mutant to reframe growing up and aging as transformative processes, diverging from the typical "coming of age" or "growing old" narratives that focus on productivity and self-improvement. The series features films by Lucrecia Martel, Paul B. Preciado, Wang Bing, and many others.

Cineville valid at the door and online the day of the screening!