Canadian Premiere
Prolific documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner has shared her work with VIFF audiences several times in the past, but she’s never made a more personal film than this one. In January 2021, her father Eli told his family it was time. He was ready to die. Either immediately, or as soon as the law allowed. Last Flight Home is a vérité record of his last few weeks on earth.
While Timoner’s film is a valuable account of the process of medically-assisted death—at least as it plays out in California—the film has much more to offer than that. A high flyer, Eli founded Air Florida in the 1970s. It became the fastest growing airline in the world. Then in 1982—in his 50s—he suffered a stroke and was paralyzed for the last 40 years of his life. This deeply moving and cathartic film is a testament to different measures of success and fulfillment. As the extended family say their goodbyes, we see how the love Eli bestowed validates a life well-spent.
Media Partner
USA
2022
English
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Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
Credits
Producer
Ondi Timoner, David Turner
Screenwriter
Ondi Timoner
Cinematography
Ondi Timoner
Editor
Ondi Timoner
Original Music
Morgan Doctor
Director
Ondi Timoner
Ondi Timoner is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker whose work focuses on impossible visionaries. She won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for Dig! (2004), about the collision of art and commerce, and for We Live In Public (2009), about the loss of privacy online. Her other work includes Join Us (2007), about mind control; Cool It (2010), about climate change; and Coming Clean (2020), about the opioid crisis. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Filmography: We Live in Public (2009); Cool It (2010); Mapplethorpe (2018); Coming Clean (2020)