Filmmaker Ondi Timoner talks about his new film “The INN Between,” which documents the year he spent capturing the lives of hospice residents who finally have a place to live.
Timoner is an award-winning filmmaker who has won two Sundance Grand Jury Awards. “The INN Between” was released last fall.
His film about the only hospice for the homeless in the US has become even more precious since he lost his home and belongings in the California wildfires.
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ABC News’ Linsey Davis sat down with Timoner to talk about “The INN Between” and how it’s been since losing her home.
ABC NEWS: Award-winning documentarian and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Ondi Timoner is known for capturing unique slices of life—months, if not years—with his subjects in his stories. He is a two-time winner of the US Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and has now released a new documentary, “The INN Between,” about America’s only homeless hospice located in Salt Lake City. Let’s take a look.
Okay, thanks so much for joining us. And before we get to “The INN Between”, I understand you recently lost your home in the LA fires. Let us know how you are doing.
TIMONER: It is an incomprehensible loss for so many people and for our beautiful town of Altadena. Everything I ever had was at home — I was in Europe at the time shooting a movie about the Nazis. So I couldn’t get anything out. So I’m struggling with chaos and loss. And me and, you know, of course, having made this movie and now having so many homeless friends to be among them is something. It feels very, very intense and very scary.
Ondi Timoner attends the Outstanding Director of the Year Award Ceremony at the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 12, 2024 in Santa Barbara, California.
Chelsea Guglielmino/WireImage/Getty Images
ABC NEWS: I think part of the movie just deals with the idea of how unpredictable homelessness can be. You have a gentleman who talks about how he lost his house in a divorce. His wife got a divorce, and suddenly he was homeless. And, and many of us think, they are different. What did you learn about people who were homeless?
TIMONER: Well, I think it’s a great opportunity with “The INN-Between,” which is the name of the actual place, that it elevates the people who are there. They have a community. They have a resident council. They go on excursions. They are treated with love and care.
And so they’re able to see what it’s really like to be homeless from a very different perspective than I’ve ever seen in a movie. It’s quite an exhilarating experience to be there. Like every time we went there to shoot, we never wanted to leave. And what I’ve learned is that they’re just like us, you know? I mean, here, even here I’m homeless now. It happens in an instant.
ABC NEWS: We often see nursing homes or hospice centers or places, homeless shelters where a bunch of people living nearby say, “Not in my backyard.” How does “The INN-Between” top all that?
TIMONER: You know, it was a real struggle for them. And now those same neighbors are volunteering there, taking jewelry-making classes and, you know, singing. And there is a piano.
ABC NEWS: Why don’t you, why do you think we don’t see this lodge anymore? Because when we talk broadly in our country, how we have a problem with homelessness, we have a problem with drug addiction, we have a problem with mental illness. But this seems to be, to a small extent, a solution if we could have this across the country.
helmsman: That’s why we made the film and that’s why it’s going to be on the LA Times website and hopefully spread even further with distribution. We hope everyone sees this. We hope that the mayors will realize that if they really help make an INN-Between happen in their town, then they will see a great result.
Not only will there be less people on the street, but no one will die on the street anymore, and they won’t have, you know, a constant flow of people in emergency rooms that need it, that they just can’t. take care otherwise.
ABC NEWS: You feel like you’re working on something that’s theirs, and if you magnify it for the world to see, I think it offers some hope.
TIMONER: You know there’s a stigma like you talked about that I feel is attached to homelessness. And I hope this movie is like that, you know, it’s just a pleasant experience watching the movie.
ABC NEWS: Well, we thank you very much for this and we wish you personally the best as well.
TIMONER: Thank you very much.
ABC NEWS: His documentary “The INN Between” covers the life stories of the residents of America’s only homeless hospice.
