Last Flight Home

February 1 Only

Presented in partnership with Compassion & Choices, the nation’s oldest, largest and most active nonprofit organization committed to improving care and expanding choice at the end of life.

After the film there will be a talkback with Corinne A. Carey, Esq., Senior State Director for New York & New Jersey, Compassion & Choices, Stacey Gibson, Medical Aid in Dying Advocate & Laura Kelly, Volunteer for Compassion & Choices.

Behind a white picket fence, on an unremarkable suburban street, we discover Eli Timoner, who founded Air Florida, the fastest growing airline in the world in the 1970's. During his final days, we discover his extraordinary life filled with incredible success and devastating setbacks, and most importantly, an innate goodness which won him the enduring love and support of his family. Through stunning verité footage recorded by his middle child, Last Flight Home takes audiences on a heart-wrenching ride through Timoner’s life, illustrating a modern day success story built on the power of human connection.

Two-time winner of the Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize (Dig!, We Live in Public) Ondi Timoner returns with an intensely intimate verité film about her family’s harrowing journey to find closure.  As they open up their lives to offer an enlightening view of a universal experience, they demonstrate the grace and connection that can emerge from embracing death. Through laughter and joy, they share a lasting legacy which demonstrates how we might live, even as we die.

1hr 41mins / NR

“Boundlessly humane. Amazingly intimate.” — NY Times

PANEL BIOS

Corrinne A. Carey, Esq.
Sr. State Director, NY & NJ Compassion & Choices
Compassion & Choices works towards a society where people receive state-of-the-art care and a full range of choices for dying in comfort, dignity and control. Corinne Carey led the successful campaign for New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, which took effect on August 1, 2019, and now coordinates the organization’s efforts to pass New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act.Corinne joined C&C after nearly a decade with the New York Civil Liberties Union where she served as Deputy Legislative Director. Prior to her tenure at the NYCLU, Corinne was a researcher with the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch where she focused on access to public housing for people with criminal records and the treatment of prisoners during Hurricane Katrina. Corinne holds a masters degree in American Studies from the University at Buffalo, and she graduated summa cum laude and first in her class from SUNY Buffalo School of Law in 1998. She lives in Troy, New York.

Stacey Gibson
Advocate, Medical Aid in Dying
Stacey Gibson spent 36 years in Human Resources management with a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company.  Her special areas of practice included diversity, work and family life, employee relations and policy.   Stacey began advocating for medical aid in dying after caring for her husband Sid for 8 years who was dying from a rare progressive neurological disease.  Sid wanted desperately to use an option like medical aid in dying but he lived in the wrong state.  Left with no options, he chose to stop eating and drinking, and suffered a terrible end.  Stacey continues to advocate for medical aid in dying as she faces her third cancer.  Her advocacy is now very personal.  Stacey’s message is simple: "Stop the suffering. Pass Medical Aid in Dying in New York now."

Laura E. Kelly
Laura E. Kelly is a book editor and visual content creator based in Mount Kisco, NY. Laura became a Lower Hudson Valley volunteer team co-leader for Compassion & Choices’ campaign to expand end-of-life options in October 2015, following the death of her terminally ill father, Larry. He had asked his daughter to help him research access to medical aid in dying at the end of his life. But because Larry lived in the wrong state, Laura was unable to help him achieve his wish for a peaceful death. Now Laura’s wish is that the people of New York State will tell their representatives to finally pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act in 2023 so others don't have to suffer like her father did.