D Is for Distance

A heartbreaking but powerful account of Louis Petit's epilepsy as documented by his parents, filmmakers Christopher Petit and Emma Matthews.

This deeply personal essay film about Louis Petit, whose severe epilepsy erased nearly all memories of his childhood, employs intimate family footage as it traces the emotional and practical consequences of living with memory loss, as well as the fragile process of reconstructing a sense of self.

Moving between the personal and the political, it navigates the labyrinth of medical bureaucracy while reflecting on cinema’s power to preserve, distort and reimagine memory. As it unfolds, D is for Distance expands into a broader meditation on technology, capitalism and the systems that shape our bodies and minds. A quietly powerful portrait of resilience, Petit and Matthews’ film reveals how identity survives and adapts when memory disappears.