Invisible Imagination (2026): Cast, Story and Release Details

Prepared by Movies Dock Editorial

Invisible Imagination follows award-winning film editor Sarah Taylor as she examines her aphantasia, the inability to form mental images. Working with Anna Cooley, Taylor speaks with other people with the condition and researchers studying it, asking how a non-visual mind can create within a visual world.

Invisible Imagination is a 2026 documentary about aphantasia, a condition in which a person cannot voluntarily create images or visual memories in the mind. The film centers on Sarah Taylor, an award-winning film editor confronting the fact that she has no visual inner imagery.

Together with Anna Cooley, a hyper-visualizer interested in how the brain works, Taylor investigates how people with aphantasia experience learning, grief, creativity and memory. The documentary approaches those questions through personal testimony and scientific research while considering the many forms human imagination can take.

Invisible Imagination movie details

Story without spoilers

Sarah Taylor discovers that she differs from most of the population because she cannot visualize images in her mind. Her condition, known as aphantasia or “mind’s eye blindness,” presents an especially interesting question given her work as a film editor in a strongly visual medium.

Taylor joins Anna Cooley to explore that apparent contradiction and to communicate the experience of a non-visual brain through film. Their investigation includes interviews with other people with aphantasia and scientists conducting research into the condition. Rather than treating aphantasia as only a limitation, the documentary examines how different forms of perception may shape the ways people learn, grieve, create and remember.

What to expect

As a documentary, Invisible Imagination combines personal inquiry with interviews and scientific discussion. Its central subject is aphantasia, but the film also considers broader questions about imagination and creativity. Viewers can expect an exploration of how people experience mental imagery differently, presented through the collaboration between Taylor, who has aphantasia, and Cooley, described as a hyper-visualizer.

Cast and creative team

Sarah Taylor and Anna Cooley direct and write Invisible Imagination, and both appear as themselves. The cast also includes Brian Cooley, Glen Cooley, Ed Donszelmann and Desirée Bilon, all appearing as themselves.

• Sarah Taylor as self
• Anna Cooley as self
• Brian Cooley as self
• Glen Cooley as self
• Ed Donszelmann as self
• Desirée Bilon as self

Release and production context

Invisible Imagination is a Canadian documentary in English with a runtime of 1 hour and 9 minutes. It is listed as released in 2026, with a release date of September 29, 2026.

Movies Dock view

Invisible Imagination offers a focused introduction to aphantasia through the experiences of its co-director and the perspectives of people and researchers connected to the subject. Its larger question is how creativity can remain expansive even when imagination does not take a visual form.

Film data:
TMDB · IMDb