Ondi Timoner - History

History

Timoner has won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival twice. Born in Miami, Florida, Timoner graduated cum laude from Yale University, with a double major in American Studies (concentration in Film and Literature) and Theater Studies. Her 2004 Sundance-winning documentary DIG!, about the collision of art and commerce through the lives of two bands, and her 2009 top prize-winner We Live in Public, about an internet visionary who showed by example how willingly privacy and even sanity are traded in the virtual age, were both acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for their permanent collection. She also directed the socio-political feature documentaries, Join Us (2007), about the religious cult epidemic in America, using the example of the Mountain Rock Church in South Carolina, and The Nature of the Beast (1994), a look at the US prison system, and co-directed the short film Recycle, which premiered at Sundance in 2005, and screened at Cannes and in schools worldwide. In 2010, Ondi premiered her fifth feature-length documentary on climate change, Cool It at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, and released it theatrically on November 12 that year through Roadside Attractions.

In 2000, Timoner created, produced and directed the original VH-1 series Sound Affects, about music's effect at critical moments in people's lives. She has directed commercials and web series for McDonald's, State Farm, Ford, the United States Army and others, and is currently directing the next two short films for Honda's "Dream the Impossible" series, which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.