Saville Productions has signed award-winning documentary, film and commercial director Ondi Timoner for commercials and branded content in the U.S. Timoner is currently shooting the biopic Mapplethorpe, to be released in 2018, starring Matt Smith as Robert Mapplethorpe, Marianne Rendón as Patti Smith and John Benjamin Hickey as Sam Wagstaff. Mapplethorpe portrays the famed portrait photographer’s humble beginnings in New York City, his rocky road to success and his subsequent controversies alongside other creatives of the ‘70s and ‘80s artistic era, prior to his untimely death in 1989.
The signature of Timoner’s projects is a focus on “impossible visionaries” who prevail against personal and cultural odds. Her slate of documentary and film work includes Dig! (2004), Join Us (2007), We Live In Public (2009), Cool It (2010), Brand: A Second Coming (2015) and the recently released 10 hour Viceland documentary series Jungletown.
Timoner has received the honor of double Grand Jury Prize wins at the Sundance Film Festival: the first for her 2004 documentary Dig!, reflecting the oftentimes contentious relationship between the bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the second for her 2009 feature We Live In Public on Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris. Her dynamic directorial style challenges viewers to connect with characters and in turn face their own deep-seeded dilemmas.
Timoner’s commercialmaking credits span such brands as Honda, Ford, McDonald’s, Go Army and State Farm. She had earlier been repped in the ad arena by RadicalMedia, and prior to that Nonfiction Unlimited.
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