Wikipedia

Lana Wilson

Lana Wilson is an American filmmaker. She directed the feature documentaries After Tiller, The Departure, Miss Americana, and Look Into My Eyes, as well as the two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.[1] The first two films were nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.[2][3]

Lana Wilson
Born (1983-08-09) August 9, 1983 (age 41)
Edmonds, Washington
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFilmmaker
Awards

Life and career

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Originally from Kirkland, Washington, Wilson graduated from Lake Washington High School in 2001.[4]

She received a BA from Wesleyan University, where she majored in film studies and dance.[5] Before becoming a director, Wilson was the film and dance curator for Performa, the New York biennial of new visual art performance.[6]

After Tiller

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Wilson's first film After Tiller follows the four most-targeted abortion providers in the country. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013[7] and was picked up by arthouse distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories.[8] The film was released in theaters in fall 2013, and received critical acclaim for taking a complex and compassionate look at one of the most challenging issues of our time.[9] It holds a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus, "After Tiller applies empathy, honesty, and graceful understatement to a discussion that all too often lacks them all."[9]

In 2015 After Tiller won the News and Documentary Emmy Award for Best Documentary.[10] It was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary,[11] four Cinema Eye Honors,[12] a Satellite Award, and the Ridenhour Prize, and was named one of the Top Five Documentaries of the Year by the National Board of Review.[13]

The Departure

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Wilson's second film, The Departure, is about a Japanese punk rocker-turned-Buddhist priest who works to prevent suicide in Japan.[4] In the film the priest confronts his own mortality. The Departure premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival[14] and was picked up by distributor FilmRise.[15] In fall 2017 it was released in US theaters to extensive critical acclaim.[16] In 2018, it was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.[17] The Washington Post wrote that the film "explores life's toughest and most transcendent moments with tenderness, honesty, and care".[18] The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a beautiful meditation on the value of life" and "a work of art".[19] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% approval rating.[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100.

Miss Americana

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Wilson's third documentary, Miss Americana, follows American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and her life over the course of several years of her career. After premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the film received praise and a standing ovation from the audience. Miss Americana is described as an "intimate", "empowering", "genuine" and "funny" documentary by critics, who complimented Wilson's direction, portraying Swift's creative process and discussions on issues such as eating disorder, self esteem and sexual assault.[20] It became the highest-rated Netflix-original biographical documentary film in IMDb history.[21] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 7.59/10.[22] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 23 critics.[23] The film is a New York Times "Critic's Pick"[24] and an IndieWire "Critic's Pick".[25]

Wesley Morris of The New York Times described Miss Americana as "85 minutes of translucence" with Swift, stating that she is "self-critical, grown up and ready, perhaps, to deliver a message beyond the music".[24] David Ehrlich of IndieWire called the film "Thrilling" and "enormously winsome", writing that "its power is in watching someone who stands astride the world gradually realize that their art is the only thing they can control".[25] Hannah Woodhead of Little White Lies wrote that the film offers "unprecedented access to the notoriously private singer and her dizzying world" through "interviews, studio footage, home videos and concert recordings".[26] In a 2020 interview with FF2 Media, Wilson herself recalls that as a storyteller, her favorite thing to film was Swift's creative process. Wilson stated that the toughest part of the project was building trust with Swift, as she hadn't been interviewed in three years.[27] Miss Americana was named one of the five best documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review.[28]

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

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Wilson’s next project, the 2023 two-part documentary series Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, examined actor, model, and icon Brooke Shields. The film uses archival material and interviews with Shields, friends and colleagues, and cultural commentators to explore Shields’ complex relationship with her mother Teri, her marriage to Andre Agassi, and her own struggles with motherhood. Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival,[29] then broke viewership records when it launched on Hulu and Disney+.[30] Upon release, the film received positive reviews from critics, earning a “Certified Fresh” designation on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which said, “An exposé of ugly cultural forces, Pretty Baby is disturbing and triumphant in equal measure.”[31] It was named a New York Times “Critics’ Pick,” with Natalia Winkelman writing that it “suggests a generation of women transformed by the prototypes society boxed them into.”[32] Writing in Variety, Owen Gleiberman called the film, “Supremely well-crafted…a documentary of fascinating depth that holds our voyeuristic image culture up to the light.”[33] He additionally notes that “Lana Wilson’s accomplished film traces how Brooke Shields’s career was at the forefront of our culture’s sexualization of girls, and shows what it was like for her to live a life inside that image.”[33] Marlow Stern in Rolling Stone called Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields “extraordinary,”[34] and Katey Rich in Vanity Fair called it “intimate and unflinching.”[35]

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program.[36] Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields was also nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award.[37] It won the 2024 Cinema Eye Honor for Best Broadcast Editing,[38] and was nominated for the 2024 Cinema Eye Honor for Best Broadcast Film.[39]

Look Into My Eyes

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Wilson’s film Look into My Eyes is a 2024 feature documentary centered on a group of New York City psychics who conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients. The film was made with A24 and premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Writing in Sight and Sound, Nicolas Rapold noted that “The genius of Lana Wilson’s portrait of New York City psychics is that she doesn’t ask us to believe, but to feel” and goes on to call the film “an exquisitely made documentary that puts compassion before cynicism.”[40] The New York Times critic Alissa Wilkinson called Look Into My Eyes “mystical” and “marvelously nuanced and fascinating,”[41] and IndieWire chief film critic David Ehrlich described it as “a sensitive and surprising film about the relationship between shared performance and private pain.”[42] Look Into My Eyes was called one of the best movies at Sundance 2024 by the New York Times,[41] the Washington Post,[43] Rolling Stone,[44] and Harper’s Bazaar.[45]

Shorts and other work

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Wilson's short-form web series, A Cure for Fear, goes inside the radical treatments of Dutch neuroscientist Dr. Merel Kindt as she seeks to treat fears ranging from severe animal phobias to PTSD. The series explores the ethically complex grounds of curing our most human ailment. It played at South by Southwest[46] and the Camden International Film Festival[47] and was nominated for an International Documentary Association Award for Best Short-Form Series.[48]

Wilson is a MacDowell Fellow and a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute.[5][49]

Themes

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IndieWire describes Wilson as "a singularly perceptive filmmaker whose documentary work has always focused on the various ways that pain can web people together - if only because it can't be exorcised alone."[50] Profiling Wilson in the inaugural issue, Doxx magazine says that Wilson "asks philosophical questions about life and death, and observes the struggles that may yield their elusive answers".[51]

Writing in The Moveable Fest, Stephen Saito says that “the director has a knack for inviting audiences into private worlds very different from one another…whether the abortion clinic in After Tiller, the practice of a Zen Buddhist who talks people away from suicide in The Departure, or an audience with Taylor Swift in Miss Americana, the settings may be different, but the animating idea behind them has largely been the same as [Wilson has] accompanied subjects through confronting their biggest fears and usually, with the help of another, finding their way through.”[52]

Influences

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Wilson has cited many influences for her work, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Frederick Wiseman, Lixin Fan, Heddy Honigmann, and William Wyler. She has said that all filmmakers should see Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man and Jacques Tati's Playtime.[53][51][better source needed]

Filmography

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Feature films

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Year Film Director Producer Writer Other Notes
2013 After Tiller Yes Yes Yes
2017 The Departure Yes Yes Yes
2020 Miss Americana Yes Yes Yes
2023 Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields Yes Two-part documentary
2024 Look Into My Eyes Yes Yes

Series

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Awards

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After Tiller won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Best Documentary in September, 2015.[59] Wilson was awarded the "Champion of Choice Award" by NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2014 for her work on the film.[60]

Wilson was selected by Sundance Institute as a Women at Sundance Fellow in 2017.[61][62]

References

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  1. ^ Macaulay, Scott (April 25, 2017). "Tribeca '17: Director Lana Wilson on Her Wise, Empathetic Suicide Prevention Doc, The Departure". Filmmaker.
  2. ^ Kilday, Greg (November 26, 2013). "'12 Years A Slave', 'Nebraska' Dominate Spirit Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  3. ^ Nolfi, Joey (November 21, 2017). "Independent Spirit Awards 2018 nominations position Get Out, Call My By Your Name in Oscar race". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Samantha Pak (October 18, 2017), "Kirkland native tackles difficult subjects in documentaries", Kirkland Reporter, Sound Publishing
  5. ^ a b Pratt faculty and staff directory accessed 2017-10-29
  6. ^ "Lana Wilson". Tribeca Film Institute. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  7. ^ "Sundance 2013: Abortion Doc 'After Tiller' Premieres to Cheers, Tight Security". The Hollywood Reporter. 18 January 2013.
  8. ^ Patten, Dominic (February 15, 2013). "Oscilloscope Picks Up Sundance Abortion Docu 'After Tiller'".
  9. ^ a b "After Tiller (2013)". 13 May 2014 – via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  10. ^ "POV's Documentary Blog | PBS". PBS.
  11. ^ "THE 29th ANNUAL FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED | Film Independent Press Center". www.filmindependent.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-30.
  12. ^ "Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees for 7th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards". The 2022 Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. November 5, 2013.
  13. ^ "NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW ANNOUNCES 2013 AWARD WINNERS". December 4, 2013.
  14. ^ Yoshida, David Edelstein, Emily (20 April 2017). "17 Movies to See at the Tribeca Film Festival This Year". Vulture.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "The Departure". Filmrise. July 19, 2020.
  16. ^ a b "The Departure (2017)". 13 October 2017 – via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  17. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 21, 2017). "Spirit Award Nominations: 'Call Me By Your Name', 'Lady Bird', 'Get Out', 'The Rider', 'Florida Project' Best Pics".
  18. ^ Hornaday, Ann (October 31, 2017). "Review | In the documentary 'The Departure,' a Buddhist monk occupies the thin place between life and death" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  19. ^ Lewis, David (November 2, 2017). "'The Departure': An ex-punk rocker's mission to save lives". SFGate.
  20. ^ Fenwick, George (January 24, 2020). "Taylor Swift documentary Miss Americana receives glowing early reviews at Sundance Festival". The Standard. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  21. ^ @stephanece (February 1, 2020). "Taylor Swift's "Miss Americana" breaks another record ahead of its release as it becomes the highest rated Netflix biography documentary by an artist on IMDB history. #MissAmericana" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ^ "Miss Americana (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. 31 January 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  23. ^ "Miss Americana Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  24. ^ a b Morris, Wesley (January 30, 2020). "'Miss Americana' Review: Taylor Swift, Scathingly Alone". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  25. ^ a b Ehrlich, David (2020-01-24). "'Miss Americana' Review: Taylor Swift Reclaims Her Narrative in Thrilling Netflix Doc". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  26. ^ Woodhead, Hannah (January 24, 2020). "Taylor Swift: Miss Americana – first look review". Little White Lies. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  27. ^ Solzman, Danielle (30 January 2020). "Sundance 2020: Lana Wilson talks 'Taylor Swift: Miss Americana'". FF2 Media. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  28. ^ "2020 Archives". National Board of Review. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  29. ^ "Sundance Film Festival unveils lineup for 2023 edition". AP News. 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  30. ^ Maas, Jennifer (2023-04-17). "Brooke Shields' 'Pretty Baby' Doc Is ABC News' Most-Watched Hulu Debut Ever (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  31. ^ "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields: Season 1 | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  32. ^ Winkelman, Natalia (2023-04-03). "'Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields' Review: Girlhood, Interrupted". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  33. ^ a b Gleiberman, Owen (2023-01-21). "'Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields' Review: A Documentary of Fascinating Depth Holds Our Voyeuristic Image Culture Up to the Light". Variety. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  34. ^ Stern, Marlow (2023-01-21). "Brooke Shields Bravely Confronts Her Own Childhood Sexual Exploitation". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  35. ^ Rich, Katey (2023-03-21). "Brooke Shields, Exploited Child Star? The Truth Isn't Nearly That Simple". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  36. ^ "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields". Television Academy. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  37. ^ "Nominations announced for the 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards – Critics Choice Awards". Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  38. ^ Pond, Steve (2024-01-13). "'32 Sounds' Wins Cinema Eye Honors Award as Top Documentary". TheWrap. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  39. ^ Carey, Matthew (2023-10-19). "'The 1619 Project,' 'Nothing Lasts Forever' Lead Charge As Cinema Eye Honors Announces First Round Of Documentary Nominations [Full List]". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  40. ^ "Look Into My Eyes review: the medium is the message". BFI. 2024-01-29. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  41. ^ a b Wilkinson, Alissa (2024-01-28). "At Sundance, A.I., Psychics and Other Ways of Connecting With the Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  42. ^ Ehrlich, David (2024-01-23). "'Look Into My Eyes' Review: Lana Wilson's Tender and Entrancing Documentary About New York City Psychics Will Make You a Believer". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  43. ^ Yuan, Jada; Rao, Sonia (January 27, 2024). "The sexiest, scariest and most Kieran Culkin-y moments at Sundance". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  44. ^ Fear, David (2024-01-27). "10 Best Movies From the 2024 Sundance Film Festival". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  45. ^ Laffly, Tomris (January 31, 2024). "Harper's Bazaar". Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  46. ^ "Closing Night Film Pet Sematary Plus Midnighters, Shorts & More Announced for SXSW Film 2019". SXSW. 2019-02-06. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  47. ^ Macaulay, Scott (24 August 2018). "Camden International Film Festival Announces 2018 Festival Slate and Storyforms VR Lineup". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  48. ^ "IDA Documentary Awards: 'Honeyland,' 'American Factory,' 'Apollo 11' Lead Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  49. ^ "Fellowships", MacDowell, p. 8, Summer 2017
  50. ^ Ehrlich, David (2024-01-23). "'Look Into My Eyes' Review: Lana Wilson's Tender and Entrancing Documentary About New York City Psychics Will Make You a Believer". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  51. ^ a b "Director Lana Wilson on courage and micro-level change", Doxx, October 12, 2017
  52. ^ Saito, Stephen (2024-03-04). "Lana Wilson's "Look Into My Eyes" - True/False 2024 Film Review". The Moveable Fest. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  53. ^ Handler, Joshua (2014-08-13). "Roboapocalypse: From the Mouths of Filmmakers: Lana Wilson". Roboapocalypse. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  54. ^ Winkelman, Natalia (2018-10-17). "Meet the Doctor Curing Fear With a Single Pill". Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  55. ^ "Interview: Lana Wilson on Putting Great Care Into "A Cure for Fear"". The Moveable Fest. 2018-10-12. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  56. ^ "The Treatment Sounded So Cinematic: Lana Wilson Interviewed by Penny Lane - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  57. ^ Robert Allen (June 6, 2016), "Ex-Detroiter behind infamous 1972 skyjacking tells his story", Detroit Free Press
  58. ^ Joseph Allen, "Tribeca 2017 Women Directors: Meet Lana Wilson — "The Departure"", Women and Hollywood (blog), Medium
  59. ^ 36th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARDS (PDF), National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, retrieved 2017-10-27
  60. ^ Movie Screening and Discussion -- After Tiller (PDF), New York County Lawyers Association
  61. ^ Meet the 2017-2018 Women at Sundance Fellows, Sundance Institute, November 2, 2017
  62. ^ "3 filmmakers receive Women in Film grants: Jordana Spiro, Martha Shane, Lana Wilson recognized by org at Sundance", Variety, January 22, 2013
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