Ondi Timoner facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Ondi Timoner

Born	Andrea Doane Timoner Miami, Florida
Alma mater	Yale University
Occupation	Film Director, producer
Years active	1994–present
Children	1

Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.

Timoner is a two-time recipient of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for her documentaries Dig! (2004) and We Live in Public (2009). Both films were acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art for their permanent collection. Her 2023 film, Last Flight Home was nominated for an Emmy and Academy Award.

Timoner is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the DGA, the PGA, the International Documentary Association, Film Fatales, and Women in Film.

Early life
Career
- 2000s
- 2010s
- 2020s
Other work
Politics
Select filmography
Select awards and recognition
Personal life
See also

Early life

Timoner was born in Miami, Florida to Elissa and Eli Timoner, co-founder of Air Florida. She has two siblings, Rabbi Rachel Timoner and David Timoner, who co-founded Interloper Films and has collaborated on several of her films.

Timoner attended Yale University, where she founded the Yale Street Theater Troupe, a guerrilla theater ensemble that performed spontaneously in unexpected environments, in 1992. She made her directorial stage debut in 1993 with her production of Sarah Daniels' Masterpieces. Timoner shot her first documentary film, Three Thousand Miles and a Woman with a Video Camera, with her younger brother David and John Krokidas, both of whom attended Yale, interviewing people at crossroads and convenience stores while on a cross country road trip.

She subsequently filmed Reflections on a Moment: The Sixties and the Nineties, an exploration of her generation's nostalgia for the 1960s and The Purple Horizon, a 60-minute documentary on the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. In her senior of college, she often made films in lieu of taking a final. For her film, Voices From Inside Time, she interviewed women inmates which would eventually lead her to Bonnie Jean Foreshaw, the subject of her first feature film, The Nature Of The Beast. The film went on to win the Howard Lamar Film Prize for Best Undergraduate Film at Yale University.'

Timoner graduated cum laude from Yale in 1994, where she majored in American Studies, with a concentration in Film and Literature, and Theater Studies.

Career

Her debut feature documentary, titled "The Nature of The Beast" (1994), explores the life and case of Bonnie Jean Foreshaw. Foreshaw was serving the longest prison sentence in the state of Connecticut for unintentionally causing the death of a pregnant woman, while defending herself against a man. The documentary aimed to shed light on issues of racism and systemic flaws within the justice system.

During her career, Timoner contributed to PBS documentaries and gained experience through an internship with documentary filmmaker Helen Whitney.

Timoner held roles such as Assistant Producer for NBC Media Services and Assistant Regional Coordinator for the Steven Spielberg Holocaust/Oral History Project in Miami, Florida.

2000s

Timoner created, executive produced and directed the VH1 original series SOUND AFFECTS (2000), about music's effect at critical moments in people's lives.

Culled from over 2,500 hours of footage, Timoner directed, co-produced, and edited DIG! (2004) with her brother David Timoner, which chronicles seven years in the lives of two neo-psychedelic bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The film explores the love-hate relationship of the band's frontmen, Courtney Taylor and Anton Newcombe. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004, is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and was screened as the finale of the Film Society at Lincoln Center and MoMA's 33rd annual New Directors/New Films Festival, in 2004.

Timoner co-directed the short film, Recycle (2005), a documentary about a homeless man who makes a garden in downtown Los Angeles. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and also played at the Cannes Film Festival.

Her third feature documentary, Join Us (2007) provides an insight into mind control in America, by following families escaping a cult. It premiered at LA Film Festival, winning awards at the Sidewalk Film Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival.

When the Jonas Brothers were signed to Columbia Records, Timoner was hired to film three music videos for the group.

Timoner debuted We Live in Public (2009) at the Sundance Film Festival. Shot over ten years and culled from more than 5,000 hours of footage, the film considers some of the darker effects of modern media and technology on personal identity through an examination of "the greatest internet pioneer you've never heard of," Josh Harris. The dot-com millionaire was referred to by reviewer Laurie Heuston as "a '90s dot-com millionaire who created fascist-themed, social experiments," endeavors that led eventually led to Harris' mental breakdown and financial downfall.

We Live in Public won the Grand Jury Prize award in the Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival, making Timoner the only nonfiction director to receive the Prize twice, and a Special Jury Mention—on its European premiere—for 'Best Documentary Film Over 30 Minutes Long' at the 2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

2010s

Timoner was hired by Ralph Winter and Terry Botwick to make her fifth feature, Cool it (2010). The documentary is an adaptation of the 2007 book of the same name. It follows the life and controversial work of political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, who pushes for alternative solutions to climate change and explicitly challenges ideas posited by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Lomborg's talking points are intercut with scientists agreeing and disagreeing with his ideology. The film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and was distributed theatrically by Roadside Attractions.

Library of Dust (2011) is about thousands of canisters of cremated remains found at the Oregon State Hospital, co-directed with Robert James, premiered at SXSW in 2011 and went on to win The Grand Jury Prize at five festivals, including Seattle International Film Festival, Taos Film Festival, Traverse City Film Festival, and Int'l Film Festival of Puerto Rico.

The Last Mile (2015) made with Conde Nast, focuses on a tech incubator inside San Quentin Prison which has reduced recidivism rates to less than 1% for its participants.

Timoner's sixth feature documentary, Brand: A Second Coming (2015), about the journey of comedian/author/activist Russell Brand, was chosen to be the opening night film at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas and picked up by Showtime. She was the sixth and final director to work on the film, Albert Maysles being one of the predecessors.

Timoner was invited by real estate entrepreneur Jimmy Stice to visit his for-profit sustainability program, Kalu Yala, in the Panamanian Jungle. They had previously met at the Hatch entrepreneurship conference in Montana. The "still in development" village is on a 575-square-acre property located in Tres Brazos, 50 minutes away from Panama City. Intrigued by the amount of young adults that made the journey to the site, Timoner subsequently decided to film her next project around the business venture in 2016. Spike Jonze picked up the project for Viceland and the footage was released as the ten-hour docu-series, Jungletown (2017). The release subsequently brought forth controversy regarding the program's internship program, that charges upwards of $5000, and the unorganized nature of the business, which has shrunken enrollment sizes of almost 100 interns in previous years to just 17 in 2018.

Timoner debuted her narrative feature Mapplethorpe (2018), titled The Perfect Moment in pre-production, at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Narrative Feature. It is based on the life and career of the controversial portrait photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, starring Matt Smith as the titular artist. The project received a grant through the Tribeca Film Institute's 9th annual All Access Program and was invited to participate in the Sundance Institute Director's, Writer's and Producer's Labs - receiving an Adrienne Shelley Grant. Shooting began on 11 July 2017 in New York and lasted only 19 days. It was later picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films in July 2018 and had its theatrical release on March 1, 2019. The Director's Cut, which was selected to premiere at Sundance but ultimately did not screen there, was released April 2, 2021.

2020s

In 2020, Ondi Timoner directed Coming Clean, a feature documentary about addiction through the eyes of recovering addicts and political leaders. The film premiered at the Bentonville Film Festival on August 6, 2020 and won the Impact Award at the 2020 and Special Jury Prize for Editing at Sidewalk Film Festival 2020.

Timoner's 2022 feature, Last Flight Home, tells the story of her father, Eli Timoner, who died during the film's production. The film premiered in the Special Screening category at Sundance Film Festival in 2022, and was purchased by MTV Documentary Films shortly after. The film was shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards and received an Emmy Nomination shortly after. In 2023, Ondi completed her documentary about the disruption of finance, The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution, which premiered at SXSW.

Timoner has directed All God's Children, which follows Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a reform rabbi and political activist, and Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman, a black baptist reverend and community leader, for several years as they bring their respective congregations, Congregation Beth Elohim and Antioch Baptist Church, together in an attempt to combat the racism and anti-semitism that affects their communities in Brooklyn.

Other work

Timoner founded, directed and produced A Total Disruption (2012). A Total Disruption is a web portal of 300 shorts and classes to share origin stories of Internet founders and artists using technology to innovate independence. Her short film Obey the artist, about graphic artist Shepard Fairey, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2013. Timoner's short film, Amanda Palmer f---ing rocks, about musician Amanda Palmer premiered in 2014 at the Tribeca Festival and played other festivals, winning the Sheffield Shorts Award at the Sheffield DocFest.

Politics

Compassion & Choices announced in May 2023 that it was partnering with Interloper Films, to help them get the right to die for terminally-ill people by screening Last Flight Home, along with in-person Q&As, providing testimony from the Timoner family, political advocates and experts about the right to die. Timoner and family were in Washington in early June 2023 to screen and discuss the film at an event presented by the U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen, to advocate for the human right to bodily autonomy at the end of life, and specifically to support legislative efforts to reform the ban on federal funding for medical-aid-in-dying (ASFRA) to ensure equal access to the right in states where it is already legal.

Select filmography

Feature film

Dig! (2004)
Join Us (2007)
We Live in Public (2009)
Cool It (2010)
Brand: A Second Coming (2015)
Mapplethorpe (2018)
Coming Clean (2020)
Mapplethorpe: The Director's Cut (2021)
Last Flight Home (2022)
The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution (2023)

Short film

Recycle (2004)
Library of Dust (2011)
Amanda F***ing Palmer On The Rocks (2014)
Russell Brand's The Birds (2014)
Obey the Artist (2014)
The Last Mile (2015)
3000 Miles and Woman with a Video Camera

Television

The Nature of The Beast (TV, 1994)
Sound Affects (TV, 2000)
Jungletown (TV, 2017)

Select awards and recognition

In 1999, Ondi was Grammy-nominated for Best Long Form Music Video for an EPK she directed about the band Fastball.

2004 — Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival for Dig!
2004 — Best Director Jury Prize at BendFilm Festival for Dig!
2007 — Special Jury Prize at the Sidewalk Film Festival for Join Us
2007 — Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short at Seattle International Film Festival for Library of Dust
2009 — Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival for We Live in Public
2015 — No Limits Award at the Ashland Independent Film Festival for Brand: A Second Coming
2015 — Dramatic Storytelling Award at the Sarasota Film Festival for Brand: A Second Coming
2012 — Ashland Independent Film Festival's Rogue Award
2014 — Sheffield Short Doc Award at the Sheffield DocFest for Amanda F---ing Palmer on the Rocks
2017 — Kodak Auteur Award
2018 — Audience Awards at Sidewalk Film Festival for Mapplethorpe
2018 — Audience Awards at Tribeca Festival for Mapplethorpe
2018 — Best Director at Long Beach International Film Festival for Mapplethorpe
2020 — Impact Award at the Naples International Film Festival 2020 for Coming Clean
2020 — Special Jury Prize for Editing at Sidewalk Film Festival 2020 for Coming Clean
2022 — Special Screenings selection at Sundance Film Festival
2022 — Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence at DOC NYC for Last Flight Home
2022 — Best Feature Documentary Award at Dallas International Film Festival for Last Flight Home
2022 — Filmmaker Impact Award at Hamptons Documentary Festival for Last Flight Home
2022 — Best Documentary Feature at Woodstock Film Festival for Last Flight Home
2022 — Critics Choice Award at Key West Film Festival for Last Flight Home
2023 — Best Documentary Feature Nominee for Girls on Film Awards for Last Flight Home
2023 — WGA Award Nominee Documentary Screenplay for the Writers Guild of America for Last Flight Home
2023 — Cinema Eye Honors "The Unforgettables" Award for Last Flight Home
2023 — Cinema Eye Honors "Audience Choice Prize" nominee for Last Flight Home
2023 — Oscars Shortlist for Best Documentary Feature for Last Flight Home
2023 — Emmy Nomination: Exceptional Merit for Last Flight Home

Personal life

Timoner is the daughter of Eli Timoner, founder of Air Florida. She has two siblings. Timoner has one son, born in 2003. She married composer, Morgan Doctor, at the Telluride Film Festival in 2022.