LAST FLIGHT HOME Director Ondi Timoner with her dad Eli Timoner

Compassion & Choices congratulates Ondi Timoner and the team behind MTV Documentary Films’ multiple award-winning documentary Last Flight Home about California’s medical aid-in-dying law for receiving a 2023 Emmy nomination for “Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.”

The film, which premiered at the Sundance and Telluride film festivals, chronicles the remarkable life of Eli Timoner and his decision to use the California End of Life Option Act to peacefully end his life with grace and dignity surrounded by his family including his daughter, internationally acclaimed documentary director Ondi. Here is the two-minute trailer.

Ondi has held screenings for Compassion & Choices supporters as well as lawmakers in numerous jurisdictions that are either campaigning to pass medical aid-in-dying laws (Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Utah) or protect existing laws (California, Montana, New Jersey, Washington, D.C.). Upcoming screenings include:

• Aug. 18, 7 p.m. – Directors Guild of America, 110 W 57th St., New York, NY.
• Aug 19, 7 p.m. – Completed Life Initiative Screening at Symphony Spaces Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, 2537 Broadway, New York, NY.
• Oct. 2 – Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass.
• Oct. 3 – Public Facing Screening at Harvard TBD, Cambridge, Mass.
• Oct. 29 – Loft Cinema, Tucson, AZ
• Dec 12 – Stanford Medical School and Public Facing Screening Events and Panel, Stanford, Calif.

“We are thrilled for Ondi Timoner because this Emmy nomination formally recognizes her courage in sharing her dad’s end-of-life journey to educate people about how California’s medical aid-in-dying law enabled him to pass peacefully on his own terms, at home, in the loving embrace of his family,” said Charmaine Manansala, chief advocacy officer of Compassion & Choices. “Given the recent attacks on medical aid-in-dying laws nationwide, this Emmy nomination could not come at a better time. It shines a light on the urgent need for these compassionate laws. Polling shows the vast majority of Americans personally want the option of medical aid in dying, regardless of where they live, their politics, race, religion or spiritual values.”

The timing of the nomination coincides with two recent attacks on medical aid-in-dying laws in California and Washington, D.C.

1. July 21 is the deadline for California officials to respond to a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claiming that the recently updated California End of Life Option Act, which took effect in 2022, discriminates against people with disabilities by coercing them into using it. In reality, the multiple safeguards in these laws in California and every other U.S. jurisdiction ensure no terminally ill adult can be coerced into using this option.
2. The U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill for Washington, D.C., (i.e., FY24 Financial Services and General Government Bill) on July 13 with an unrelated policy rider to repeal the D.C. Death with Dignity Act and prevent the D.C. Council from re-passing the law in the future, an unprecedented one-two punch to terminally ill D.C. residents to strip away their legal rights to make their own end-of-life care decisions (see page 209 of bill text).

“I never expected to turn the camera onto my own family until my father pleaded with us to end his life,” said Ondi. “The footage was supposed to remain private, but what happened over those weeks was so profound and transformative, it felt incumbent upon me to share it in hopes of helping others — because losing our loved ones is something we all must face.”

“So many people call our film ‘a gift,’ but we came to realize that the true gift is medical aid in dying,” Ondi said. “Nothing in the film would have happened that way were it not for this compassionate law, which restored Eli’s hope, peace and agency, and allowed our entire family healing closure. We, the ‘T-Team,’ now understand medical aid in dying to be a basic human right to bodily autonomy, and we want to pay the gift forward to other families by sharing the film far and wide.”

ABOUT LAST FLIGHT HOME

Behind a white picket fence on an unremarkable suburban street, Eli Timoner is about to die. Just as he lived, he will do so surrounded by his loved ones, on his own terms. Lucky enough to live in one of the few states that allow medical aid in dying, the Timoner family embarks on a mission to help their beloved patriarch exit the world with the same dignity with which he lived. As the family opens up to provide an enlightening, often humorous, view of a universal experience, this intensely intimate film also offers a lasting legacy of one man’s extraordinary life and his commitment to both living — and dying — with agency and grace.

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