Callie Hernandez Plumbs a Secret Life In Trailer for Courtney Stephens’ Acclaimed Invention

Last year I was fortunate to see a rough cut of Invention, a new film by Courtney Stephens (Terra Femme, The American Sector) that toes the documentary-fiction boundary more nimbly than most: it stars Callie Hernandez as a woman seeking clarification on the death of her inventor father (the actress’ own, glimpsed through archival footage) whose death […] The post Callie Hernandez Plumbs a Secret Life In Trailer for Courtney Stephens’ Acclaimed Invention first appeared on The Film Stage.

Mar 27, 2025 - 19:39

Callie Hernandez Plumbs a Secret Life In Trailer for Courtney Stephens’ Acclaimed Invention

Last year I was fortunate to see a rough cut of Invention, a new film by Courtney Stephens (Terra Femme, The American Sector) that toes the documentary-fiction boundary more nimbly than most: it stars Callie Hernandez as a woman seeking clarification on the death of her inventor father (the actress’ own, glimpsed through archival footage) whose death spurs an investigation both clerical and conspiratorial. Stephens interpolates conversations (both expository and atmospheric) with sequences that might be dreams, fantasies, or emanations from one of her father’s creations. Even as an enthusiast of the director I wasn’t entirely prepared for this experience, but understood it was unlike any recent narrative film. Now Invention, credited to both director and star, opens at Metrograph on April 18 following last summer’s Locarno premiere, during which Hernandez won a much-deserved Pardo for Best Performance in the Filmmakers of the Present section. With it comes a trailer that deftly sells Stephens’ mix of quotidian and oddball, grief and tension.

As Rory O’Connor said in his review, “If that juicy stuff were all Invention had to offer, it would be compelling enough. But the film succeeds as much as entertainment as it does on aesthetic and conceptual terms. Stephens’ 16mm images are a perfect match for both the archival footage and Hernandez’ fuzzy state of mind––and while you couldn’t call her appearance a choice, necessarily, her familiarity and celebrity do add a little something to Invention‘s secret sauce. As does the decision to cast directors (Joe Swanberg and Caveh Zahedi appear; Sahm McGlynn steals some scenes as a brief love interest) in supporting roles. Adding to this storytelling milieu, Stephens leaves some of her own voice and direction in the final cut, allowing it to spill over its margins. Even images of the device itself, which we see humming and glowing in a blood-red room, hold their own seductive power.”

Watch the trailer below:

The film fictionalizes the aftermath of Hernandez’s father’s death using a real archive of varied TV appearances he made as an alternative health doctor in the late ’90s through 2020. The fictional storyline revolves around the patent of an experimental healing device that becomes his daughter’s (played by Hernandez as the character of ‘Carrie Fernandez’) sole inheritance. Featuring other independent filmmakers in acting roles, ‘Invention’ serves as a portrait of America in its late period, a country in which widespread disappointment infuses the culture with hopeful fictions and toxic nostalgia.

The post Callie Hernandez Plumbs a Secret Life In Trailer for Courtney Stephens’ Acclaimed Invention first appeared on The Film Stage.