#ondi timoner

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Oscar Shortlist: "All the Walls Came Down" — The Devastation of Altadena

Documentarian Ondi Timoner has quite a resume as a filmmaker. Her features have covered everything from rock music in the 1990s to tech moguls paying people to live on camera for weeks. However, “All the Walls Came Down” stands out as one of the most personal stories she’s ever made. Filming the devastation of her home and the greater Altadena neighborhood results in an emotionally powerful…

Oscar Shortlist: "All the Walls Came Down" — The Devastation of Altadena

[allweknewisdead]

DIG! XX (2024) - Ondi Timoner

I'm here to destroy this fucked up system. I will do it. That's why I got the job. I said let it be me; I said use my hands. I will use our strength. Let's fuckin' burn it to the ground!

[byneddiedingo]

Matt Smith in Mapplethorpe (Ondi Timoner, 2018)

Cast: Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Brandon Sklenar, Tina Benko, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Thomas Philip O'Neill, Mickey O'Hagan, Anthony Michael Lopez, McKinley Belcher III, Brian Stokes Mitchell. Screenplay: Ondi Timoner, Mikko Alanne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Goodrich. Cinematography: Nancy Schreiber. Production design: Jonah Markowitz. Film editing: John David Allen, Lee Percy, Ondi Timoner. Music: Marcelo Zarvas. 

An unconventional artist like Robert Mapplethorpe deserves an unconventional biopic. Ondi Timoner's Mapplethorpe isn't. It's full of clichés like the meet-cute: Mapplethorpe (Matt Smith) meets Patti Smith (Marianne Rendón) on a park bench when she latches on to him as a pretend boyfriend to evade a pursuing creep. There are the usual clashes with the parents, a bullying father (Mark Moses) and an ineffectual mother (Carolyn McCormick). There's the chance meeting that launches him to success: The wealthy art collector Sam Wagstaff (John Benjamin Hickey) becomes both mentor and lover. And the faint funk of disapproval hangs over the film, as if Mapplethorpe's life were something of a warning to aspiring artists, especially queer ones. I think it wants to celebrate Mapplethorpe as an artist, but is afraid to do so, stepping gingerly around gay sexuality as if afraid of rousing the "ick factor" in a straight audience. The lives of artists are notoriously hard to dramatize, and everyone connected with Mapplethorpe deserves respect for trying, but they didn't succeed.

[greensparty]

Fundraiser for Ondi Timoner

There's a lot of fundraisers and Gofundme campaigns right now set up to help those impacted by the L.A. wildfires. Filmmaker Ondi Timoner and her partner Morgan were among those impacted. They lost their home while both were overseas and in addition to personal belongings their film equipment, research, awards, etc were destroyed as well.

Ondi is one of the great documentary filmmakers of our time. I was so blown away by her 2004 years-in-the-making doc Dig! about the friendship and rivalry between indie rock bands The Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre after I saw it in the movie theater that I actually reached out to her via her website and she got back to me. I sent her my short film Musician For Hire, which had some similar themes as Dig!, and she gave me some great feedback and we later met up at the Dig! DVD Party in NYC. We have met a few times since and stayed in touch. Since Dig! she has made several fascinating docs such as Join Us about escapees from a cult and We Live in Public about an early dot-com pioneer. In early 2023 I interviewed Ondi via phone about her phenomenal and deeply personal documentary Last Flight Home (which I named Best Documentary of 2022) and she was super cool (as usual).

me with Ondi at the Dig! DVD Release Party in NYC on 4/11/2005

I donated to the Gofundme for her and I encourage you to consider donating if you can: https://gofund.me/01daa3ec

[greensparty]

Stuff I'm Looking Forward to in January

Welcome to 2025! As we begin this year, there's still Hanukkah (ends 1/2) and Kwanzaa (ends 1/1) both continuing into this month and then there's New Year's Day (1/1), Armenian Christmas (1/6), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (1/20), Inauguration Day (1/20), and Lunar New Year (1/25). Here's what else is on my radar:

Movies:

DIG! XX 

Ondi Timoner's 2004 documentary Dig about the friendship and rivalry between The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols is one of my favorite documentaries of the 00s. To celebrate the 20th anniversary, Timoner revisited the film with an extended edition that, after playing festivals, is getting released 1/17.

Presence

Steven Soderbergh is one of those directors I always check out. Good or bad, there's always a unique take on a genre he's jumping into. Now he's got a thriller about a haunted house opening 1/24.

Music:

Ringo Starr Look Up

I'm a big fan of Sir Ringo Starr and after years of EP releases he is back with a new full length album for the first time in years. It's a country album produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett. Album drops 1/10.

TV:

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live and there are going to be multiple celebratory shows. First up is a docuseries about SNL produced by Morgan Neville premiering on 1/16 on Peacock.

Severance Season 2

I named the first season of the high-concept workplace series Severance my #2 TV Show of 2022. After multiple delays due to the strikes, season 2 is finally premiering on 1/17 on Apple TV+.

Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music

Speaking of SNL50 celebrations, there's a primetime special co-directed by Questlove about the musical guests over the last 50 years on SNL, airing 1/27 on NBC.

Awards Season:

Now that 2024 is over, it's time to hand out some awards for the Best of 2024. Kicking off awards season this month is Golden Globe Awards on 1/5.

[dare-g]

We Live in Public (2009)

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"The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution"

An energetic documentary about the younger generation of disenfranchised Wall Street disruptors who are unafraid to lose it all, if it means they can shake things up and change the world.

Internationally acclaimed documentarian Ondi Timoner‘s latest work is one of her most timely. In “The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution,” the director examines the world of normal folks turned millionaire stock traders by taking a deeper look at the influence gaming, social media, and digital avenues had on the traditional American Dream. By interviewing the founders of WallStreetBets and…

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[greensparty]

Congrats and Thanks to Ondi Timoner

Last month I had the pleasure of talking with director Ondi Timoner on her moving documentary Last Flight Home. Read the full interview here.

When I posted the interview both Ondi and Last Flight Home shared it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreensPartyBlog/status/1615178551325593603

Now congrats are in order for Ondi and the Last Flight Home team as it has been nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay at the 2023 WGA Awards! Fingers crossed for Last Flight Home to win (it should’ve been nominated by the Academy if you ask me).

Thank you and Congrats Ondi!