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Filmmaker Ondi Timoner discusses her new film “The INN Between,” which documents the year she 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 Prizes. “The INN Between” was released last fall.
Her film about the only hospice for the homeless in the U.S. has become even more precious since she lost her home and belongings in the California wildfires.
Tune into “Good Morning America” on Friday, Jan. 17, as ABC News and ABC owned stations kick off “SoCal Strong” (#SoCalStrong) coverage in support of Los Angeles-area communities amid the devastating wildfires. Coverage continues across ABC News programs and platforms.
ABC News’ Linsey Davis sat down with Timoner to talk about “The INN Between” and how she has been doing since losing her home.
ABC NEWS: Award-winning documentarian and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Ondi Timoner is known for capturing unique slices of life in her stories, spending months, if not years, with her subjects. She’s won Sundance’s U.S. grand jury prize twice and is now out with a new documentary, “The INN Between,” about the only hospice for the homeless in America, located in Salt Lake City. Let’s take a look.
Ondi, thank you so much for joining us. And before we get to “The INN Between,” I understand that you recently lost your home in the LA wildfires. Just give us a sense of how you’re doing.
TIMONER: It’s, it’s an unfathomable loss for so many people and for our beautiful town of Altadena. Everything I ever had was in the house — I was in Europe shooting a film about the Nazis at the time. So I wasn’t able to pull anything out. So I’m just sort of grappling with the chaos of it and the loss. And I and, you know, of course, having made this film and have so many dear friends who are homeless to be among them now is something. It feels very, very intense and very scary.
Ondi Timoner attends the Outstanding Directors of the Year Award ceremony during the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, February 12, 2024 in Santa Barbara, California.
Chelsea Guglielmino/WireImage/Getty Images
ABC NEWS: I think that part of the film just deals with the idea of just how unexpected homelessness can be. You have one gentleman who’s there who talks about how he lost his house in a divorce. The wife got the divorce, and all of a sudden he was homeless. And, and many of us think, they are different. What did you learn about the people who were without a home?
TIMONER: Well, I think what is really a unique sort of opportunity with “The INN-Between,” which is the name of the actual place, is that it elevates the people that are in there. They have community. They have a resident council. They go on field trips. They are treated with love and care.
And so they’re able to really express what it is to be homeless from a very different perspective than I’ve ever seen in a film before. It’s quite an uplifting experience to be there. Like every time we would go there to shoot, we’d never want to leave. And what I learned is they’re just like us, you know? I mean, here, here I am homeless now as well. It happens in an instant.
ABC NEWS: We see often many scenarios of nursing homes or hospice centers or places, shelters for the homeless where a bunch of people who live nearby say “Not in my backyard.” How is “The INN-Between” able to get past all that?
TIMONER: You know, it was a real struggle for them. And now those same neighbors are volunteering there, doing jewelry-making classes and, you know, sing-alongs. And there’s a piano there.
ABC NEWS: Why don’t you, why do you think we don’t see more of these inns? Because when we talk about in broad strokes in our country, about 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, in small part, a solution if we could have this across the country.
TIMONER: That’s why we made the movie and that’s why it’s going to be out on the LA Times site and hopefully get even further with distribution. We hope that everyone will see this. We hope that mayors will realize that if they actually help an INN-Between happen in their town, then they will see such a great result.
Not only will there be less people on the streets, there’ll be no one dying on the streets anymore, and the emergency rooms won’t have the kind of, you know, constant flow of people in need who just can’t get care otherwise.
ABC NEWS: It feels like you’re on to something that they are, and by you magnifying it for the world to see, really, it feels like it does offer some opportunity of hope.
TIMONER: You know I feel like there’s such a stigma attached to homelessness like you talked about. And I hope that this film is such, you know, it’s just a enjoyable experience to watch the film.
ABC NEWS: Ondi, we thank you so much for this and wishing you personally all the best as well.
TIMONER: Thank you so much.
ABC NEWS: Her documentary, “The INN Between,” features the life stories of residents in the only hospice for the homeless in America.
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