Documentary veteran Ondy Timoner and her wife, Morgan Doctor, were working on a film in Budapest when they received a call that their home in the Altadena neighborhood of Los Angeles had burned to the ground in the Eaton fire. It was January 7, 2025.
Timoner, known for documentaries such as DIGGING!, We Live in Public Places, Last Flight Home and most recently All God's Children, lived in the house for 14 years. The director lost all of her physical possessions, including film equipment and hard drives containing footage from past films, as well as money, jewelry, valuable paintings and her son's artwork. But despite the traumatic loss, when Timoner returned to Los Angeles, she decided to film her and the Doctor's return to the non-existent home. The director worked with producer Maggie Contreras and cinematographer Elle Schneider, as well as her nephew Eli Timoner.
Together, over the course of six months, the small team captured what the fires' aftermath looked like for Timoner and her neighbors, many of whom lost their inheritance overnight and now risk being displaced and losing their homes forever. Timoner also filmed with Altadena community organizer Heavenly Hughes and the nonprofit My Tribe Rise as they tried to rebuild the lives of those in need after the catastrophic fires.
The result of Timoner's efforts was the 38-minute documentary film “All the walls have collapsed“, which captures the resilience and solidarity of a community determined to rise again. The director uses his personal loss as a path to a larger story about a community coming together in the wake of the fires. The doc also explores how West Altadena's black community is being displaced even as it still pays off mortgages on homes that no longer stand.
“I’m so glad I did the film when I returned to the ruins of my home, even though I really felt hopeless and depressed,” says Timoner. “It gave me the material with which I was able to turn this experience from a complete nightmare, which we are still living through, into something that can protect and heal. We shot the film quickly and made it a short film to try to help an urgent situation in my city.”
In September, All the Walls Came Down premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. The film will screen at the Sun Valley Film Festival on Sunday, where Timoner will receive the Impact Award. (The short documentary is eligible for an Oscar nomination, which Timoner never received.)
Since the document's debut, it has been used to raise financial and material resources, such as Airstream trailers for families who have lost their homes. Working as a team with My Tribe Rise, Timoner hosted a screening of the document for funders and organizations that can help Altadena and its struggling residents.
“All the Walls Came Down showed me the true power of filmmaking, giving me the opportunity to turn an unimaginable tragedy into a rallying cry and shield to protect a city and its most vulnerable,” says Timoner. “It was like practicing alchemy to tell my intimate story of grief and loss to help my neighbors preserve and restore their land.”
Timoner and her team are currently working on releasing the film to help gather signatures. by petition stop foreclosures in Altadena.
“We've collected over 1,000 signatures and we're just getting started,” Timoner says. “We are asking Governor Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature to declare an immediate moratorium on mortgage payments, interest charges, foreclosures and evictions for all residents affected by the January 2025 Eaton Fire until claims against Southern California Edison and related insurance issues are resolved.”
The Los Angeles Times will release “All The Walls Came Down” on January 7th. its documentary platform.
“We want to continue to use this film as a way to help the community heal from such a traumatic event that spanned the area from the Palisades to Altadena,” Timoner says. “We also hope to raise bridge funding to help Altadena families in need in their recovery.”
