Timoner was born in Miami, Florida, to Elissa and Eli Timoner, co-founder of Air Florida.[4] She has two siblings, Rabbi Rachel Timoner and David Timoner, who co-founded Interloper Films and has collaborated on several of her works.
Timoner attended Yale University, where she founded the Yale Street Theater Troupe, a guerrilla theater ensemble that performed spontaneously in unexpected environments, in 1992.[5] She made her directorial stage debut in 1993 with her production of Sarah Daniels' Masterpieces.[5] Timoner shot her first documentary film, Three Thousand Miles and a Woman with a Video Camera, with her younger brother David and John Krokidas, interviewing people at crossroads and convenience stores while on a cross country road trip.[6]
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.[5][7] 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.[6][5] The film went on to win the Howard Lamar Film Prize for Best Undergraduate Film at Yale University.[5]
Timoner graduated cum laude from Yale in 1994, where she majored in American Studies, with a concentration in Film and Literature and Theater Studies.[5][8][9]
Career
Early years
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.[10]
During her career, Timoner contributed to PBS documentaries and gained experience through an internship with documentary filmmaker Helen Whitney.[5]
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.[5]
2000s
Timoner created, executive produced and directed the VH1 original series Sound Affects (2000),[7] a film about music's effect at critical moments in people's lives.
Her next film, Library of Dust (2011), shines light on canisters of cremated remains found at the Oregon State Hospital.[23] Co-directed with Robert James, Library of Dust 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 International Film Festival of Puerto Rico. The Last Mile (2015), made with Conde Nast, focuses on a tech incubator inside San Quentin State Prison.[24]
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 was later picked up by Showtime.[25] She was the sixth and final director to work on the film, Albert Maysles being one of the predecessors.[26]
Timoner was invited by real estate entrepreneur Jimmy Stice to visit his for-profit sustainability program, Kalu Yala, in the Panamaian Jungle.[27] Timoner filmed her next project around the business venture in 2016.[27][28]Spike Jonze picked up the project for Viceland and the footage was released as the ten-hour docu-seriesJungletown (2017).[27]
Timoner debuted her narrative feature Mapplethorpe (2018), titled The Perfect Moment in pre-production,[7] at the 2018 Tribeca 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. 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.[29]
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[30] and won the Impact Award at the 2020[31][32] and Special Jury Prize for Editing at Sidewalk Film Festival 2020.[33]
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.[34] The film was shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards and received an Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking shortly after.[35][36] In 2023, Ondi completed her documentary about the disruption of finance, The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution, which premiered at SXSW.[37]
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.[38]
She directed The Inn Between about the eponymous facility,[1] the only hospice and recuperative care facility for the homeless in the U.S.[39]
Other work
Timoner founded, directed and produced A Total Disruption (2012).[40]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,[41] about graphic artist Shepard Fairey, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2013.[42] Timoner's short film, Amanda Palmer f---ing rocks,[43] about musician Amanda Palmer premiered in 2014[44] at the Tribeca Festival and played other festivals, winning the Sheffield Shorts Award at the Sheffield DocFest.[45]
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.[46]
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.[47]
2022 — Critics Choice Award at Key West Film Festival for Last Flight Home[51]
2023 — Best Documentary Feature Nominee for Girls on Film Awards for Last Flight Home[52]
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.[53] Timoner has one son, born in 2003. She married composer, Morgan Doctor, at the Telluride Film Festival in 2022.
^Alexandra Alter (April 4, 2009). "'The Truman Show' for Everyone". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 27, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
