The Tender Distance
by Mira Matthew
Synopsis
A wise friend once told me that being a parent is about finding the ‘right’ distance. My parents separated when I was a teenager. Shortly after, I went to live thousands of kilometres away from where home once was. More recently, I separated from the father of my own child. How does distance reproduce itself? What flourishes within distance? What dies away completely?
Biography
Mira Mattthew grew up in South Africa. At seventeen she left for India, following her yoga teacher. She studied yoga and permaculture there. At twenty she moved to Brussels and studied film editing. She edited Juanita Onzanga’s film, The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2017. In 2018 she completed a master’s degree in audio-visual art at Luca School of Arts with her first short film, Resident Alien, screened at Fogo Island Film Festival. As an editor she collaborated with directors Maud Neve and Deborah Ruffato. In 2022 she completed her first radio piece, Hyena Women, which received the Jacques Matthey-Doret prize at URTI Radio Grand Prix 2023 and was nominated at Brussels Podcast Festival and Phonurgia Nova. Additionally she practices as a photographer, working mostly with analogue film and most often in the realms of dance and somatic practices.