Ondi Timoner facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Ondi Timoner

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

Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker. She started her own company, Interloper Films, which makes movies. It is located in Pasadena, California.

Ondi Timoner has won the Sundance Film Festival's top award, the Grand Jury Prize, twice. She won for her documentaries Dig! (2004) and We Live in Public (2009). Both of these films are now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her 2023 film, Last Flight Home, was nominated for an Emmy award.

Timoner is a member of several important groups for filmmakers. These include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Directors Guild of America, and the Producers Guild of America.

Early Life and Education
Filmmaking Career
Other Projects
Advocacy Work
Select Films
Awards and Recognition
Personal Life
See also

Early Life and Education

Ondi Timoner was born in Miami, Florida. Her parents are Elissa and Eli Timoner. Her father, Eli, helped start Air Florida. She has two siblings, Rachel and David. Her brother David also helped start Interloper Films and has worked with her on many movies.

Timoner went to Yale University. In 1992, she started a theater group there called the Yale Street Theater Troupe. They would perform plays in unexpected places. She directed her first play in 1993.

While at Yale, she made her first documentary film. It was called Three Thousand Miles and a Woman with a Video Camera. She filmed it with her brother David and a friend named John Krokidas. They interviewed people during a road trip across the country.

She also made other documentaries in college. One explored how her generation felt about the 1960s. Another was about a large march for equal rights. For her final project in her senior year, she made a film called Voices From Inside Time. She interviewed women in prison for this film. This led her to make her first feature film, The Nature Of The Beast. This film won an award at Yale University.

Timoner graduated from Yale in 1994 with honors. She studied American Studies, focusing on Film and Literature, and Theater Studies.

Filmmaking Career

Early Films and Documentaries

Ondi Timoner's first feature documentary was The Nature of The Beast (1994). This film looked at the life of Bonnie Jean Foreshaw. The documentary aimed to show problems with the justice system.

Early in her career, Timoner worked on documentaries for PBS. She also learned a lot during an internship with another documentary filmmaker, Helen Whitney. She also worked for NBC Media Services.

Films in the 2000s

In 2000, Timoner created and directed a TV series for VH1 called SOUND AFFECTS. This show explored how music affects people's lives at important moments.

Timoner directed, co-produced, and edited DIG! (2004) with her brother David. They used over 2,500 hours of video for this film! DIG! won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. It is now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

She also co-directed a short film called Recycle (2005). It was about a homeless man who created a garden in Los Angeles. This film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.

Her third feature documentary, Join Us (2007), looked at how people can be controlled by groups. It followed families who were leaving a cult. It won awards at several film festivals.

Timoner also directed three music videos for the Jonas Brothers when they first signed with Columbia Records.

In 2009, Timoner released We Live in Public. She filmed this movie over ten years, using more than 5,000 hours of video. The film explores how modern media and technology can affect who we are. It focuses on an internet pioneer named Josh Harris. We Live in Public won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. This made Timoner the only nonfiction director to win this award twice.

Films in the 2010s

In 2010, Timoner directed her fifth feature film, Cool it. This documentary was based on a book about environmental issues. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Library of Dust (2011) was about thousands of containers of ashes found at a hospital. Timoner co-directed it, and it won awards at five festivals.

The Last Mile (2015) was made with Condé Nast. It is about a technology program inside San Quentin State Prison. This program has helped reduce the number of people who return to prison after release.

Timoner's sixth feature documentary was Brand: A Second Coming (2015). It was about comedian and activist Russell Brand. This film was the opening night movie at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

In 2016, Timoner visited a sustainability program in the Panamanian Jungle. She was interested in the young adults who traveled there. She decided to film her next project about this program. The footage became a ten-hour TV series called Jungletown (2017).

Timoner's narrative film Mapplethorpe (2018) premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Narrative Feature. The movie was filmed in New York City in just 19 days. It was released in theaters in 2019.

Films in the 2020s

In 2020, Timoner directed Coming Clean. This film won awards at the Bentonville Film Festival and the Sidewalk Film Festival.

Timoner's 2022 film, Last Flight Home, tells the story of her father, Eli Timoner. He passed away while the film was being made. The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022. It was also nominated for an Emmy award in 2023.

In 2023, Timoner finished her documentary The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution. It premiered at SXSW.

Timoner has also directed All God's Children. This film follows a rabbi and a reverend as they bring their churches together. They work to fight racism and anti-semitism in their communities in Brooklyn. She also directed The Inn Between, about a special facility for homeless people who need hospice care.

Other Projects

Timoner started and directed A Total Disruption (2012). This was a website with many short videos and classes. It shared stories from internet founders and artists who use technology in new ways. Her short film Obey the Artist, about graphic artist Shepard Fairey, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2013. Another short film, Amanda F---ing Palmer on the Rocks, about musician Amanda Palmer, won an award at the Sheffield DocFest in 2014.

Advocacy Work

In May 2023, a group called Compassion & Choices announced they were working with Interloper Films. They are working to help people who are terminally ill have the right to choose how they end their lives. They screen Last Flight Home and hold discussions with Ondi Timoner's family and experts.

In June 2023, Timoner and her family went to Washington. They showed the film and talked about the right for people to make choices about their own bodies at the end of life. They supported efforts to change laws to ensure equal access to this right.

Select Films

Feature Films

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 Films

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 Shows

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

Awards and Recognition

1999 — Nominated for a Grammy Award for a music video she directed.
2004 — Won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival for Dig!
2004 — Won Best Director Jury Prize at BendFilm Festival for Dig!
2007 — Won Special Jury Prize at the Sidewalk Film Festival for Join Us.
2007 — Won Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short at Seattle International Film Festival for Library of Dust.
2009 — Won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival for We Live in Public.
2015 — Won the No Limits Award at the Ashland Independent Film Festival for Brand: A Second Coming.
2015 — Won the Dramatic Storytelling Award at the Sarasota Film Festival for Brand: A Second Coming.
2012 — Won the Rogue Award at the Ashland Independent Film Festival.
2014 — Won the Sheffield Short Doc Award at the Sheffield DocFest for Amanda F---ing Palmer on the Rocks.
2017 — Won the Kodak Auteur Award.
2018 — Won Audience Awards at Sidewalk Film Festival and Tribeca Festival for Mapplethorpe.
2018 — Won Best Director at Long Beach International Film Festival for Mapplethorpe.
2020 — Won the Impact Award at the Naples International Film Festival for Coming Clean.
2020 — Won Special Jury Prize for Editing at Sidewalk Film Festival for Coming Clean.
2022 — Selected for Special Screenings at Sundance Film Festival for Last Flight Home.
2022 — Won the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence at DOC NYC for Last Flight Home.
2022 — Won Best Feature Documentary Award at Dallas International Film Festival for Last Flight Home.
2022 — Won Filmmaker Impact Award at Hamptons Documentary Festival for Last Flight Home.
2022 — Won Best Documentary Feature at Woodstock Film Festival for Last Flight Home.
2022 — Won Critics Choice Award at Key West Film Festival for Last Flight Home.
2023 — Nominated for Best Documentary Feature for Girls on Film Awards for Last Flight Home.
2023 — Nominated for a WGA Award for Documentary Screenplay for Last Flight Home.
2023 — Received "The Unforgettables" Award from Cinema Eye Honors for Last Flight Home.
2023 — Nominated for the "Audience Choice Prize" at Cinema Eye Honors for Last Flight Home.
2023 — Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars for Last Flight Home.
2023 — Received an Emmy Nomination for Exceptional Merit for Last Flight Home.

Personal Life

Ondi Timoner is the daughter of Eli Timoner. She has two siblings. Timoner has one son, who was born in 2003. She married composer Morgan Doctor in 2022.