39th edition 2024 feature films
Invention
Courtney Stephens
In the aftermath of a conspiracy-minded father’s unexpected death, his daughter receives his patent for an experimental healing device. She slowly begins grieving as she discovers this invention and meets the people who knew her father.
Courtney Stephens is a screenwriter and director. The American Sector - her first feature documentary - and her essay film, Terra Femme, made of amateur travel footage shot by women in the early 20th century, were part of many exhibits and festival selections. Invention was screened at Locarno in the Cineasti del Presente section.
A word from the selection committee:
Invention, American director Courtney Stephens’s first narrative feature, (her experimental documentary The American Sector was screened at the 2020 Berlinale), co-written with its lead actress Callie Hernandez, is a colourful film interspersed with fragments of personal archives featuring a self-proclaimed scientist with bizarre theories - none other than the actress’s late father. The flexible narrative thread of the story is born from this intimate intertwining of reality and fiction, as Callie wanders through the phantasmagorical world of her eccentric father. Far from condemning the figure of this brilliant charlatan, the film slowly progresses towards a rush of compassion, exploring with tender humour the beliefs generated by those precepts promising an ultimate cure to the most desperate among us. Through the loss of a relative, Invention takes us on a journey into the fallen myths of America and questions - without any condescension - this ever-present need to tell ourselves stories.
― Paola Raiman
- Interprétation
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Callie HERNANDEZ, Sahm McGLYNN, Lucy KAMINSKY, Tony TORN, James N. KIENITZ WILKINS
- Scénario
- Courtney STEPHENS, Callie HERNANDEZ
- Photographie
- Rafael PALACIO ILLINGWORTH
- Son
- Emile KLEIN
- Montage
- Courtney STEPHENS, Dounia SICHOV
- Musique
- Thomas E. DIMOCK, Sarah DAVACHI, Cate KENNAN, Twig HARPER
- Production
- Callie HERNANDEZ, Courtney STEPHENS
CONTACT :
Indox Films
Luke Brawley
luke@indoxfilms.com