D Is for Distance

"D Is for Distance" is an autobiographical essay film about Louis Petit, who lives with a severe, complex form of epilepsy that has shaken his young life and erased his childhood memories. Behind the film are co-directors Christopher Petit and Emma Matthews, Louis' parents, who fought for years with the unyielding bureaucracy of the ailing British health system. An unrealized film project of the father about William S. Burroughs and former CIA chief James Angleton opens the space to examine the connections between technology and the subconscious, capitalism and the mind's "inner reality". With a stunningly edited selection of film excerpts, Louis' artworks, sound textures and road-movie journeys, the film explores the microcosm of personal suffering and the macrocosm of societal decay – and, despite the crushing events, is a beacon of hope.