Saville Productions has signed award-winning documentary, film and commercial director Ondi Timoner for commercials and branded content in the U.S. Timoner is currently shooting the biopic Mapplethorpe, to be released in 2018, starring Matt Smith as Robert Mapplethorpe, Marianne Rendón as Patti Smith and John Benjamin Hickey as Sam Wagstaff. Mapplethorpe portrays the famed portrait photographer’s humble beginnings in New York City, his rocky road to success and his subsequent controversies alongside other creatives of the ‘70s and ‘80s artistic era, prior to his untimely death in 1989.
The signature of Timoner’s projects is a focus on “impossible visionaries” who prevail against personal and cultural odds. Her slate of documentary and film work includes Dig! (2004), Join Us (2007), We Live In Public (2009), Cool It (2010), Brand: A Second Coming (2015) and the recently released 10 hour Viceland documentary series Jungletown.
Timoner has received the honor of double Grand Jury Prize wins at the Sundance Film Festival: the first for her 2004 documentary Dig!, reflecting the oftentimes contentious relationship between the bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the second for her 2009 feature We Live In Public on Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris. Her dynamic directorial style challenges viewers to connect with characters and in turn face their own deep-seeded dilemmas.
Timoner’s commercialmaking credits span such brands as Honda, Ford, McDonald’s, Go Army and State Farm. She had earlier been repped in the ad arena by RadicalMedia, and prior to that Nonfiction Unlimited.
Rupert Maconick, Saville’s EP, noted, “Ondi is a great director who brings a unique documentary and female perspective to the commercial world. I’m excited to see her bring brand campaigns to life.”
Timoner shared, “I really enjoy the process of working in the commercial world. It’s challenging, in an exciting way, in that one must capture the heart of the story, often times casting on the spot, in a matter of days. Rupert’s body of work in branded content, which he’s created with some of the greatest filmmakers around, impressed me. I also appreciated how selective he is about who he works with.”
Originally from Miami, Florida, Timoner graduated from Yale University after majoring in Theater and American Studies focusing on film and literature. She led her craft into documentary filmmaking work with The Nature of the Beast (1994), a TV documentary film on Bonnie Jean Foreshaw–who received the longest prison sentence of any woman in the state of Connecticut–and the inner workings of the American prison system. Timoner has recently penned a script on her father, Eli Timoner, who founded the fastest growing airline in American history prior to an accident that caused bankruptcy and a lifetime of paralysis.
Timoner currently resides in Los Angeles and maintains a close relationship with both of her parents and her son, Joaquim.
