In 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival, Kristen Stewart joined Ava DuVernay, Agnes Varda, Jane Fonda and over 80 other women in a protest on the steps of the Palais to draw attention to the lack of female directors programmed in the line-up. That year, only three out of the 21 competition films were directed by women.
Seven years later, Stewart is back at the festival with her directorial debut The Chronology of Water, but the journey was not an easy one. “We had to leave the United States to make this possible,” said Stewart of trying to get the film financed.
Stewart was on hand for a conversation with Chronolgy actor and musician Kim Gordon at Hyde Beach by Campari held by Breaking Through Lens. The non-profit group is focused on helping any filmmakers who experience marginalization due to their gender get their projects financed. At the event, Simbelle Productions founder Lauren Melinda announced the Simbelle Impact Award, a $10,000 unrestricted grant given to one finalist of the next Breaking Through Lens grant cycle whose project exemplifies social impact and artistic clarity.
Despite being one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Stewart had to go to Europe to get Chronology made. Based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir of the same name, the film follows a once-hopeful Olympic swimmer as she loses her scholarship and battles addiction while discovering her own sexuality and love of literature.
Stewart knew she was not right to play Yuknavitch, but her choosing not to star in the debut made finding money all the more difficult. “The list of women and men [actors] that can finance a movie in the entertainment industry are so beyond me. They change so quickly and I don’t understand them at all,” she said. Ultimately, Stewart cast Imogen Poots in the film.
Stewart spoke just hours before the film’s May 16 premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes. This year’s fest features seven films directed by women in its twenty-two-film competition line-up, nowhere near parity.
As for her future directing ambitions, Stewart said, “I would love to [act] in something I direct, and I will do it soon, I hope.” But, for now, she is happy to finally see Chronology screen in front of an audience: “I feel like I am watching my kid in kindergarten like, ‘Look at her go!’”
