By Robert Goldrich

In announcing the Grand Jury Prize winner for U.S. Documentary Film at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, director Carl Deal (who won the very same honor in 2008 for Trouble The Water, which he co-directed with Tia Lessin), observed, “Documentaries carry us into worlds we know nothing about, into places we might not necessarily want to travel. And in doing so, they address critical issues and force us to think a little differently about who we are and what we do.
    Referring to the winning Sundance documentary which he had not yet identified, Deal continued, “This film will scare the living crap out of you by putting us into a world that is as seductive as it is terrifying and in a very personal way challenges each of us to think about the consequences of how we interact with the world and with each other.”
    Deal then presented the ’09 Sundance Grand Jury Award to director Ondi Timoner for We Live In Public.
    The documentary tells the story of the Internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction as reflected through the eyes of influential maverick yet up until now relatively obscure web pioneer Josh Harris who invested part of the fortune he made on a shocking art project in New York in which people became part of a controlled community where their lives were chronicled on the Internet. Harris too became a subject of that art project as web viewers saw him in his everyday life, including one day when he was in the bathroom and received a phone call informing him that his dot-com investments had bottomed out and he had lost his entire fortune.
    The documentary captures Harris as both a heroic visionary and a tragic character of sorts, who way back in the 1980s saw the web as satiating–and at the same time exploiting–people’s needs for fame.
    We Live in Public marked Timoner’s return to Sundance. In 2004 her first major feature documentary, DIG!, debuted at the festival and won the Grand Jury Prize. The film represented some seven years of her life filming two bands, providing insights into the collision of art and commerce.
    A year later Timoner had her short film Recycle also make the Sundance Film Festival cut. The six-minute documentary introduced us to a homeless man who by recycling old plants created a beautiful makeshift green thumb garden in Los Angeles’ historic Echo Park neighborhood.
    Timoner’s documentary filmography also includes Join Us which tackles brainwashing and the epidemic of cults in America.
    The director described the film, which explores one cult and the rehabilitative treatment undergone by four families who experienced it, as her personal “jazz album,” meaning that it’s a deserving piece of art that she’d like to see gain greater mainstream exposure. Join Us debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival in ’07 and talks are currently underway to show the film on the Sundance Channel. (More information on this documentary and the many  issues it addresses can be found on Joinusthemovie.com.)
    Among Timoner’s recent endeavors was directing two of the segments for the CNN Heroes program and event. She chronicled the efforts of Yohannes Gebregeorgis and Viola Vaughn. The former started Ethiopia Reads, which brings free public libraries and literacy programs to thousands of children in Ethiopia. And Vaughn founded the 10,000 Girls initiative which helps girls in Senegal succeed in school and learn business skills.

Spot experience    Represented for commercials via bicoastal Nonfiction Unlimited, Timoner has a penchant for spotmaking. She has been active with work for such clients as Ford, the U.S. Army and State Farm.
    The Army fare included short web films that Timoner directed, portraying young recruits and how military training and experience impacted their lives.
   As for the State Farm campaign out of DDB Chicago, Timoner helmed two national spots which had her following the grass-roots efforts of State Farm agents to help and comfort victims of Hurricane Katrina. One such story was of a State Farm employee who organized five trips from Oregon to Mississippi, each with U-Haul shipments of supplies to the needy.
    “I love doing commercials,” related Timoner. “I remember going to Alaska for Ford and JWT. The sun never rose. The best we could get was a dark blue sky from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  We spent five days there total to find oil workers using super duty Ford trucks in different ways, getting a mix of race, gender, personality and jobs. I met workers in the cafeteria, at the oil rig, throughout the pipeline and talked to them. We picked several and did portraits of their lives for Ford.
    “What a pleasure for me to be able to go into this world I’ve never been in before and figure out how to tell people what it’s like.”
    Timoner affirmed that despite her continuing heavy duty time on the film festival circuit for We Live In Public, she is committed to opening up her filmmaking schedule to accommodate more commercials.
    “It’s a form I love and every experience I’ve had in commercials has been an incredible shot in the arm for me personally and creatively.”
    While her documentary filmmaking expertise has translated into spot opportunities, Timoner hopes that We Live In Public will help add yet another dimension to her opportunities in the commercials industry.
    We Live In Public, she said, “is very much a textured piece, heavy in graphics with a strong visual motif.” This was born in large part out of her collaboration on the film with graphic designer David Eagle.

“The form should follow the content and that’s how we created the visual motif–in order to be true to the film’s subject….I hope the visual sensibilities in this film open up some visual opportunities for me in commercials. Ad agencies are sending me in to meet people and get their real stories but that can at times be less exciting visually. I’d like the chance to do even more exciting visual work in commercials with clients and agencies continuing to tap into my documentary storytelling.”
    The New York advertising community can get a first-hand look at We Live In Public and meet Timoner when the film screens as part of the New Directors/New Films initiative (March 25-April 5) presented by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. At press time, We Live In Public was slated to be showcased at MoMA on April 5.
    Among the film’s other stops was the recently wrapped South by Southwest (SXSW) Fest in Austin, with the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival as well as the Los Angeles Film Festival both upcoming.

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