U.S., 2022, 101 min, 2K DCP, Dir. Ondi Timoner, Not Rated, MTV Documentary Films
Last Flight Home
Friday, 11/18 to Thursday, 11/24
“Profound in its simplicity, wrenching in its honesty, and beautiful in its humanity, Last Flight Home is the blessing Eli Timoner earned.” — Elizabeth Weitzman, The Wrap
“Unflinching, but is very much a film of love and understanding.” — Allan Hunter, Screendaily
EXCLUSIVE MIAMI PREMIERE EVENT
Join us on Friday, November 18 at 6:00 pm for a reception with food and wine, followed at 7:00 pm by a special screening and Q&A with the film's writer/director/producer Ondi Timoner. The Q&A will be moderated by Lauren Cohen, director of programming at Miami Film Festival.
Behind a white picket fence, on an unremarkable suburban street, we find 92-year-old Eli Timoner, who founded Air Florida, the fastest growing airline in the world in the 1970's. During his final days, we discover his extraordinary life filled with incredible success and devastating setbacks, and most importantly, the innate goodness that won him the enduring love and support of his family. Through stunning verité footage recorded by his middle child, Last Flight Home takes audiences on a heart-wrenching ride through Timoner’s life, illustrating a modern day success story built on the power of human connection.
Two-time winner of the Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize (Dig!, We Live In Public) Ondi Timoner returned to the festival with her most intensely intimate verité film yet, which intimately portrays her family’s challenging journey to find closure and invites us into a rare and honest confrontation and conversation with mortality. The film is not only a unique and open display of the process of death, without inhibition or sanitization, but also a humanization of the journey of a family ‘midwifing’ a patriarch through his final days. Rather than placing death at a distance — as something that happens to someone else — the film invites the audience to experience this mysterious and often terrifying part of life alongside the Timoner family and encourages them to get to know Ondi’s father — his triumphs, and his struggles, and how he works to make peace with them just before he passes on. As the Timoners open up their lives to offer an enlightening view of a universal experience, they demonstrate the grace and connection that can emerge from embracing death. Through laughter and joy, they share a lasting legacy which demonstrates how we might live, even as we die.
About filmmaker Ondi Timoner
Ondi Timoner is an internationally-acclaimed filmmaker whose work focuses on “impossible visionaries” (and Last Flight Home is no different.) She has the rare distinction of winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice, for Dig! (2004) about the collision of art and commerce and We Live in Public (2009) about the loss of privacy online as predicted in a bunker in NY over the turn of the millennium. Both films were acquired by MoMA NY for its permanent collection. Since then, Ondi’s created award-winning films / series such as Join Us about mind control, Cool It about climate change, Brand: A Second Coming about the transformation of Russell Brand, Jungletown about an intentional community in remote Panama, Coming Clean about the opioid crisis, and Mapplethorpe a film she also wrote and produced about Robert Mapplethorpe starring Matt Smith. She’s currently directing a feature about the disruption and decentralization of finance. Ondi is an active member of the DGA, PGA and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
About moderator Lauren Cohen
A lifelong film lover and Miami Beach native, Lauren Cohen holds a bachelor’s degree in Motion Pictures and Theatre from University of Miami. She has been writing about film since 2009, and went on to become the Entertainment Editor at SocialMiami.com. Cohen began working at Miami Film Festival in 2014 to promote the best of world cinema to the Miami community, and was responsible for creating and running the Festival’s ongoing membership group for young professionals, CineClub. She joined the festival’s programming team in 2017, and was named Miami Film Festival’s Director of Programming earlier this year.
This film is presented in partnership with the Miami Jewish Film Festival and Books & Books.
Tickets to these screenings are $12.75 and under. Cinema members pay only $8.
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