The film celebrates the history of the moving image and documents a life-changing journey by Louis Petit, made by his parents, filmmakers Christopher Petit (Radio On) and Emma Matthews (Arena – Night and Day, BBC)
It has been announced that ‘D is for Distance’ will be released in Uk & Ireland cinemas on the 3rd April 2026 by BFI Distribution. A BFI Player release will follow on 11 May.
The film had its world premiere at the IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam) in February and its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. It won the award for Best Anthropological Film at the 66th Festival dei Popoli – the oldest documentary film festival in Europe – and has screened at other major festivals this year including Austria’s Viennale, Doclisboa, Portugal, the Midnight Sun Film Festival, Finland and the Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea.
D is For Distance uses a montage of contemporary family and travel footage, with archival clips from early cinema history, it dramatically yet poetically illustrates what has happened since Louis Petit, at 12 years old, was suddenly struck with a seemingly incurable and life-threatening rare form of epilepsy, which wiped out his memory of childhood. A rumination on memory and a meditation on cinema, the NHS and family relationships, the film also offers a frank and uncompromising insight into medical bureaucracy and the stigma and ignorance still surrounding epilepsy.
Louis, now 22, is an emerging artist working in London. The experiences of his condition have vividly influenced his paintings, drawings and etchings, exhibited during the LFF at London’s Velrose Gallery and seen throughout the film. Narrated by actor Jodhi May, D is for Distance is also a celebration of music, including Holger Czukay, The Everly Brothers, Ennio Morricone, King Krule and more. Archival footage features the work of pioneering filmmakers the Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès, Percy Stow and Cecil Hepworth. The film ends high in the Finnish Arctic Circle with breathtaking footage shot by cinematographer Jussi Eerola and a rediscovery of classical cinema.
D is for Distance is a film by Christopher Petit and Emma Matthews. It is produced by Mika Taanila and Jussi Eerola at Elokuvayhtiö Testifilmi, a Finnish artist-run production company focusing on cinematic art. The film was supported by the Finnish Film Foundation and AVEK, in co-production with ZDF in collaboration with ARTE – La Lucarne, in association with Yle.