Based on the memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch and marking the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart, THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER is a raw and unflinching portrait of survival, sexuality and self-invention. The film traces Lidia’s life from her earliest memories in the Pacific Northwest, as a promising swimmer, through fractured relationships, near-motherhood, addiction and encounters with artistic heroes. Told as a fluid memory wash, the story transforms trauma into art, embodying Yuknavitch’s defiant voice that made her work a modern cult classic. It is not only a chronicle of a woman becoming a writer, but a visceral journey through the wreckage and resilience of a life lived against the grain.
“As a writer-director, [Kristen Stewart’s] working on the high wire — making a movie that’s all about consciousness, one that shows you everything but never spells it out too obviously. She presents Lidia Yuknavitch’s story out of sequence, in impressionistic closeup moments that sear themselves into your imagination, as if every shot were a sentence ripped from a hidden diary. This is the beauty of what movies can do.” —Owen Gleiberman, Variety “Kristen Stewart has…managed to translate the flow of words through that of images and sound, to show a filmmaking fluid and strong-willed like a river that becomes more forceful with obstacles in its way…. Yuknavitch’s book is one of reflected pains and joys, a testimony to the resilience of a woman’s own body; Stewart’s filmmaking renders them not visible, not audible, but deeply felt.” —Savina Petkova, Film Stage “No one is more seen in THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER than [Imogene] Poots, who allows herself to be consumed with the urgency and hunger of Lidia…. It is a powerhouse performance that roots a film that merits it, and signals Stewart as just as interesting a directorial voice as she is a performer.” —Rafa Sales Ross, The Playlist
