A new short documentary about a Los Angeles pilot who found flying almost by accident during the pandemic will be released Sept. 16, offering an intimate look at the aviation community that still gathers around Santa Monica Airport.
The film, titled "One Flight Became His Life," follows Tedd, a pilot whose relationship with aviation began during COVID-19 when feeling stuck at home led him to take an introductory flight at the airport. Six years later, he flies both airplanes and helicopters and is building flight time toward his commercial helicopter license.
Directed by filmmaker Valentine Di Marco, the 10-minute, 38-second film will be released through What a Life, an independent documentary series, on YouTube and on the project's website.
The film is structured around a single helicopter flight from Santa Monica along the Southern California coast and back into the hangar. Di Marco said he built the story around one flight to spend time with his subject and capture a piece of his daily life.
"I wanted the film to unfold through something Tedd actually does," Di Marco said. "Following one flight felt like a natural way to spend time with him and document one part of his everyday life, while also understanding the place flying has in it."
He said the approach was meant to let viewers share in the experience rather than simply hear about it.
"You see the coastline from his perspective, you follow the flight with him, and you get a sense of the freedom he finds in it," Di Marco said. "I wanted people to understand why he's so drawn to flying, not just hear him talk about it."
While Di Marco said the film is not about the future of the airport, it captures a small part of the aviation community that still exists there today. He said working on the project deepened his understanding of what such places mean to the people who use them.
"Places like this are more than just places where people fly," Di Marco said. "They become part of people's routines, work, friendships and everyday lives."
For Tedd, he said, the airport is woven into a larger life built around flying.
"The airport isn't just where he takes off from," Di Marco said. "It's part of the world he has built around flying, and part of the community that comes with it."
Di Marco warned that something is lost when a community airport disappears.
"When a place like that disappears, you lose some of those connections too," he said.
The filmmaker said he was first drawn to Tedd not simply because he flies helicopters, but because of how far a single introductory flight had carried him. During the pandemic, Tedd was feeling stuck at home and wanted to get out, so he decided to take the flight.
"That desire for freedom ended up leading him to something that would become a huge part of his life," Di Marco said.
Over time, he said, flying stopped being just a pastime.
"Flying wasn't just something he enjoyed doing anymore," Di Marco said. "It had started influencing his schedule, his goals, and the way he built his life."
That transformation is the thread running through the broader series. What a Life explores the lives people build around the things that matter to them, using an observational approach rooted in everyday life. Di Marco said the idea grew from a curiosity about how personal interests can reshape a person's choices, routines and relationships.
He said he is drawn to a particular moment in his subjects' lives, "when an interest becomes much more than a hobby and starts shaping the way someone lives."
Most of the people he films are those he meets naturally around Los Angeles, and he said he prefers to let a story emerge rather than arrive with one already written.
"I don't like going into a film with the story already decided," Di Marco said. "I prefer spending time with someone, seeing what their everyday life is actually like, and letting the story come from that."
The film is set to be available beginning Sept. 16 on the What a Life YouTube channel, @whatalife.stories, and at whatalifestories.com.