D Is for Distance

‘“We know more about the universe than we do about the brain.” That sums up Louis Petit’s situation. He lives with a severe, complex form of epilepsy that has shaken his young life and erased his childhood memories. Louis’s parents, co-directors Christopher Petit and Emma Matthews (…) have been battling for years against the unyielding bureaucracy of the ailing British health system. Yet this is only one layer of the autobiographical essay film. An unrealised film project by his father about the writer William S. Burroughs and the former CIA chief James Angleton – both addicted, obsessive and paranoid – opens up a space to explore the connections between technology and the subconscious, capitalism and the ‘inner reality’ of the mind. With a breathtakingly edited selection of film clips, Louis’s artwork, soundscapes and road-movie journeys, D Is for Distance explores both the microcosm of personal suffering and the macrocosm of social decay. And despite the devastating events, the film is a beacon of hope.’ (Adrian Martin)