D is for Distance
Finland2025documentary88'On the Edge
What do memory loss, William S. Burroughs, post-war CIA espionage operations and today’s parental struggles with a heartless healthcare system have in common? All of these elements come together in a creative and deeply personal essay. Following Louis, who suffers from epilepsy, we embark on a journey into the world full of emotions, paradoxes, conspiracy theories and images dating back to the very beginnings of cinema. This daring cinematic trip also takes us inside the protagonist’s extraordinary mind and prompts reflection on contemporary technology, the transmission of information and human fragility.
- directed by
- Christopher Petit
Christopher Petit is a filmmaker whose work has received international retrospectives (Locarno, Sundance, Buenos Aires). His feature fiction films include 'Radio On' and 'Chinese Boxes'. Other feature-length works include 'The Falconer', 'Asylum', 'London Orbital', 'Unrequited Love' and 'Content'. He is the author of eleven novels, including 'Robinson' and 'The Psalm Killer', reissued in 2016 as a Picador Modern Classic. He has been described by Le Monde as the Robespierre of English cinema.
Emma MatthewsFilm director and editor. She is co-director with Anthony Wall of 'Arena — Night and Day' (BBC, 2016-20, fourteen 24-hour films, drawn from BBC Arena’s unique archive of over 600 films, from dawn to dawn, with each version seasonly adjusted according to location and time of year. Her editing work includes many prize-winning arts documentaries whose subjects include James Ellroy, Phil Spector, Bob Marley, Brian Eno, Guy Bourdin, The Sex Pistols, Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan and Moby Dick. She has cut Chris Petit’s films since 1998, including his collaborations with Iain Sinclair — 'The Falconer' (1998), 'Asylum' (2000), 'London Labyrinth' (2002) — as well as 'Unrequited Love' (2006) and 'Content' (2010). Her most recent collaboration with Petit and Sinclair was 'Pariah Genius' (2024), based on Sinclair’s book on London photographer John Deakin.
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