NAPLES FF INTERVIEWS: Ondi Timoner talks about her latest film, COMING CLEAN

Ondi Timoner’s COMING CLEAN, which recently screened at the Naples International Film Festival, continuing a truly impressive tour of regional fests throughput the country this year, examines addiction through the eyes of recovering addicts and political leaders, as they come together to bring the profiteers to justice and rebuild in the wake of the deadliest drug epidemic in our history.

The opioid crisis in this country is one that has tentacles that reach into every level of society, regardless of economic class, ethnicity, or situation – and Timoner’s approach attempts to show us the framework of how such a scourge is literally built. In that way, the film effectively operates as a “Opioids in America 101” course. But leaving it at that would be an unfair description, since she also digs deeper into some personal stories to give a fuller appreciation of how the addiction can take hold of a person, both medically and emotionally and how incredibly difficult it is to free one’s body chemistry and mindset from the addiction.

In the interview, Timoner and I talk about what she felt was a need and a gap regarding insight and information on the topic inspiring her to make this her next film, as well as balancing the filmmaker’s agenda for their film versus a subject’s agenda for a personal cause or self-interest. She discusses her technique in and methods in getting interview subjects to open up and give information that is below the surface level. We also talk about the challenges she personally faces making films now since she has established a “brand name” as a filmmaker preventing her from being able to cover a subject under the radar.