Q&A with Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez on April 5 at 6:15pm (FLC) and April 6 at 4:00pm (MoMA)

Personal anguish and noirish mystery are inextricably bound in Invention, wherein Callie Hernandez (who co-conceptualized the film, and plays a cross between herself and some other vision) seeks the truth about her father—an inventor of devices boasting untapped power—whose death is not what it seems. Traversing a backwoods America of oddballs, cretins, estate vultures, and even the occasional sweetheart, Hernandez’s journey is a constant reminder of how much our loved ones hide from us in life and death alike. Courtney Stephens’s years in experimental documentary cinema help turn this Super 16mm–shot investigation narrative on its head, while a commanding performance confirms Hernandez (winner of a Best Performance Prize in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente) as a captivating screen performer and artist.