Filmmaking is deeply personal for writer-director Ondi Timoner who over the years has connected us with people and stories that have left a lasting impact. Her latest, Last Flight Home (MTV Documentary Films), continues in that tradition while taking the personal nature of storytelling to a new level. It’s a documentary which leaves us much to consider while ultimately eliciting a thanks for letting us get to know Ondi's father, Eli–during the final 15 days of his life.
We meet Eli Timoner, 92, after he’s decided to exercise his right to die–requesting a medically assisted end to his life to free him from the anguish of COPD and being completely immobilized. Eli wasn’t one to give into setbacks–physical or otherwise. He had suffered a stroke some 40 years earlier but carried on–back when there was little thought or protection for the rights of the disabled as he had to endure being pushed out of Air Florida, the airline he founded. Still, he handled what befell him–including being paralyzed on the left side of his body, and blinded on the left side of both eyes–with stoicism, grace and humor over the decades.
Yet the financial loss hit him hard. His entrepreneurial success on multiple business fronts was wiped out and he harbored the notion that he was a failure, no longer able to provide for his family the way he wanted. During his last 15 days on earth, at home in Southern California, Eli and his family–wife Lisa, daughters Rachel and Ondi, son David, and grandkids–had a life-affirming experience. For Eli came the realization that true success is measured in goodness, unconditional love, selflessness and wisdom–all of which he had in abundance for above all, family and friends.
Family and friends surrounded Eli during those last 15 days, visiting and reminding him of the impact he had on their lives. Ondi said that her Dad was finally able to “release the shame” that he carried over the decades.
Ondi initially intended to film her Dad just for family viewing, noting that Eli had an accidental stroke (stemming from a massage which cracked his neck) when she was just nine-and-a-half years old. “I was desperate not to forget him,” she explained, reasoning that the film could help her family preserve some memories. But as she got deeper in the process, Ondi realized she had something special that could be of value to others.
“I am so grateful that my family let me film when I had this intense impulse. I was at the same time questioning whether or not it was a good idea…and what I was trying to do with it. I was trying to bottle Dad up and remember him which is something my sister [Rachel, a rabbi] is not comfortable with generally. But she got on board, She allowed it. My father immediately did too, saying he instinctively knew I was on the right track. My mother was happy there would be something of Dad left–a recorded image with sound, being able to hear his voice.”
In her director’s statement on Last Flight Home, Ondi related, “As I sat down to edit the mountains of footage, I realized that my father was captured in all his radiance and brilliance, inside the Avid! The beautiful footage, loaded with gems of wisdom and humor, poured over me, and I could grieve with a dimension many don’t get to experience…so I just kept editing. I stayed up many nights crying and laughing with Dad and the film got longer and longer. Six months after my father’s death, I had a feature film. Never had something poured out of me so quickly.”
During the editing process, Ondi said she “saw things I didn’t see” when behind the camera as she had been simultaneously concerned with caring for her Dad, setting up final goodbyes with his friends, organizing Zoom calls. “There were conversations I didn’t necessarily hear while filming,” shared Ondi. But in the editing room, she could soak in everything, be with her Dad again–an opportunity that few people have with the loss of a loved one.
“It was incredibly comforting to be with him,” said Ondi, adding it “felt almost unethical not to share that with others.”
The film has gone on to resonate with audiences on the festival circuit, first at Sundance this year and then at the Telluride Film Festival. While Last Flight Home is there for Eli’s death, it is much more a celebration of his life. And beyond the personal poignancy of that, the film also inherently touches upon other striking big-picture issues, including the importance of disability rights–which could have meant so much when Eli had his stroke–and the right to die as a basic human right. To have autonomy and authority over our own bodies in life and death is an issue that has taken on increased relevance today given the recent Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade. Currently laws that allow for medical aid in dying, such as California’s End of Life Option Act, are in place in just 10 states and Washington, D.C. Ondi said she is grateful that her Dad had the option to choose a death with dignity, deciding when the time was right. The California law gives this option to mentally capable, terminally ill people after a 15-day waiting period. At any time within that span, the person can reconsider his, her or their decision.
Sundance, Telluride
Having Sundance select Last Flight Home as a Special Screenings presentation meant a great deal to Ondi who has a storied history at the festival. She has the distinction of winning the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance twice–for Dig! (2004) about the collision of art and commerce through the eyes of two rival rock bands; and for We Live In Public (2009), about the loss of privacy online through a NY social experiment created by Internet pioneer Josh Harris. Both films were acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection.
At one point, her scripted narrative feature debut, Mapplethorpe, was scheduled to play at Sundance but a financier wound up diverting that debut to the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. Ondi has also been a participant in the Sundance Directing and Writing Labs where she and documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams recently agreed that they had their most formative education. That assessment from the two documentarians came during a recent panel discussion they participated in at the Woodstock Film Festival.
Indeed there’s a special place in Ondi’s soul for Sundance. She hearkened back to the premiere of Dig!, which came not too long after the birth of her son. “It was such a tender time for me, a new mother sharing my work like that,” she recalled. “I had the safest feeling being there. It was like an incubator. It was home to me.”
To then return to the fest with Last Flight Home, sharing her father’s life with albeit a largely virtual audience online–a dozen years after the premiere of We Live In Public–meant the world to Ondi. She and her family traveled to Park City for the debut of Last Flight Home, wanting to be together and connect with those in attendance to celebrate and commemorate Eli’s life. A screening was hosted at the Sundance resort, drawing more than 100 people–double-masked, crying and laughing together–followed by a conversation session.
Telluride also chose Last Flight Home–the invitation coming from the festival’s exec director Julie Huntsinger prior to the film’s appearance at Sundance. Ondi noted that Huntsinger told her the film was selected for the “model of humanity” that Eli represented. Ondi noted that Telluride “now sits next to Sundance in my heart.”
Last Flight Home opened in New York theaters last week, is slated to hit select L.A. theaters tomorrow (10/14) and rolls out nationally next week (10/21).
Ondi’s body of work also includes such award-winning features as The Nature of the Beast, Join Us, Cool It and Brand: A Second Coming. Her 10-hour nonfiction series about the building of “the world’s most sustainable town,” Jungletown for Viceland, additionally earned critical acclaim.
Ondi has also occasionally taken on select commercials, and continues to be repped in that arena by production house MAJORITY, a shop known for bringing women directors from indie feature film into spots and branded content. Ondi, who noted that she feels simpatico with MAJORITY founder/filmmaker Senain Kheshgi, recently directed an Amazon project via the production company.
