In 2018 on the Cannes Film Festival, Kristen Stewart joined Ava DuVernay, Agnes Varda, Jane Fonda and over 80 different ladies in a protest on the steps of the Palais to attract consideration to the shortage of feminine administrators programmed within the line-up. That yr, solely three out of the 21 competitors movies had been directed by ladies.
Seven years later, Stewart is again on the pageant along with her directorial debut The Chronology of Water, however the journey was not a straightforward one. “We had to leave the United States to make this possible,” mentioned Stewart of attempting to get the movie financed.
Stewart was available for a May 16 dialog with Chronolgy actor and musician Kim Gordon at Hyde Beach by Campari held by Breaking Through Lens. The non-profit group is concentrated on serving to any filmmakers who expertise marginalization resulting from their gender get their initiatives financed. At the occasion, Simbelle Productions founder Lauren Melinda introduced the Simbelle Impact Award, a $10,000 unrestricted grant given to 1 finalist of the subsequent Breaking Through Lens grant cycle whose venture exemplifies social affect and inventive readability.
Despite being considered one of Hollywood’s greatest stars, Stewart needed to go to Europe to get Chronology made. Based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir of the identical title, the movie follows a once-hopeful Olympic swimmer as she loses her scholarship and battles dependancy whereas discovering her personal sexuality and love of literature.
Stewart knew she was not proper to play Yuknavitch, however her selecting to not star within the debut made discovering cash all of the harder. “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 mentioned. Ultimately, Stewart forged Imogen Poots within the movie.
Stewart spoke simply hours earlier than the movie’s May 16 premiere within the Un Certain Regard part at this yr’s Cannes. This yr’s fest options seven movies directed by ladies in its twenty-two-film competitors line-up, nowhere close to parity.
As for her future directing ambitions, Stewart mentioned, “I would love to [act] in something I direct, and I will do it soon, I hope.” But, for now, she is glad to lastly see Chronology display screen in entrance of an viewers: “I feel like I am watching my kid in kindergarten like, ‘Look at her go!’”
