Lana Wilson

Lana Wilson is an American filmmaker. She directed the feature documentaries After Tiller, The Departure, and Miss Americana.[1] The first two films were nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.[2][3]

Lana Wilson
BornAugust 9, 1983 (age 36)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFilmmaker
Home townKirkland, Washington
Awards

Life and career

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]

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 "Certified Fresh" 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]

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, indicating "universal acclaim."

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 critical 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 a "certified fresh" 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, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[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]

Wilson's short-form web series, A Cure for Fear, played at South by Southwest[28] and the Camden International Film Festival[29] and was nominated for an International Documentary Association Award for Best Short-Form Series.[30]

Wilson is a MacDowell Fellow and a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute.[5][31]

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."[32]

Influences

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.[33][32]

Filmography

Feature films
YearFilmDirectorProducerWriterOtherNotes
2013 After Tiller Yes Yes Yes
2017 The Departure Yes Yes Yes
2020 Taylor Swift: Miss Americana Yes Yes Yes

Series
  • A Cure for Fear (director/producer) – a 4-episode short-form series for First Look Media's Topic, launched October 2018[34][35][36]
  • National Geographic I Am Rebel documentary series premiere episode "Jacked" (writer/producer) – concerning the Southern Airways Flight 49 highjacking, aired June 5, 2016[37][38]

Awards

After Tiller won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Best Documentary in September, 2015.[39] Wilson was awarded the "Champion of Choice Award" by NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2014 for her work on the film.[40]

Wilson was selected by Sundance Institute as a Women at Sundance Fellow in 2017.[41][42]

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References
  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. Samantha Pak (October 18, 2017), "Kirkland native tackles difficult subjects in documentaries", Kirkland Reporter, Sound Publishing
  5. Pratt faculty and staff directory accessed 2017-10-29
  6. "Lana Wilson". Tribeca Film Institute. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  7. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/sundance-2013-abortion-doc-tiller-413633
  8. Patten, Dominic; Patten, Dominic (February 15, 2013). "Oscilloscope Picks Up Sundance Abortion Docu 'After Tiller'".
  9. "After Tiller (2013)" – via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  10. https://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/pressroom/2015/09/pov-films-win-two-news-documentary-emmy-awards
  11. https://www.filmindependent.org/press/press-releases/the-29th-annual-film-independent-spirit-awards-nominations-announced
  12. "Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees for 7th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards". The 2020 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. "17 Movies to See at the Tribeca Film Festival This Year". Vulture.
  15. "The Departure". Filmrise. July 19, 2020.
  16. "The Departure (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. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  23. "Miss Americana Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  24. Morris, Wesley (January 30, 2020). "'Miss Americana' Review: Taylor Swift, Scathingly Alone". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  25. 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. "Sundance 2020: Lana Wilson talks 'Taylor Swift: Miss Americana'". FF2 Media. FF2 Media. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  28. "Closing Night Film Pet Sematary Plus Midnighters, Shorts & More Announced for SXSW Film 2019". SXSW. 2019-02-06. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  29. Macaulay, Scott. "Camden International Film Festival Announces 2018 Festival Slate and Storyforms VR Lineup". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  30. "IDA Documentary Awards: 'Honeyland,' 'American Factory,' 'Apollo 11' Lead Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  31. "Fellowships", MacDowell, p. 8, Summer 2017
  32. "Director Lana Wilson on courage and micro-level change", Doxx, October 12, 2017
  33. Handler, Joshua (2014-08-13). "Roboapocalypse: From the Mouths of Filmmakers: Lana Wilson". Roboapocalypse. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  34. Winkelman, Natalia (2018-10-17). "Meet the Doctor Curing Fear With a Single Pill". Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  35. "Interview: Lana Wilson on Putting Great Care Into "A Cure for Fear"". The Moveable Fest. 2018-10-12. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  36. "The Treatment Sounded So Cinematic: Lana Wilson Interviewed by Penny Lane - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  37. Robert Allen (June 6, 2016), "Ex-Detroiter behind infamous 1972 skyjacking tells his story", Detroit Free Press
  38. Joseph Allen, "Tribeca 2017 Women Directors: Meet Lana Wilson — "The Departure"", Women and Hollywood (blog), Medium
  39. 36th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARDS (PDF), National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, retrieved 2017-10-27
  40. Movie Screening and Discussion -- After Tiller (PDF), New York County Lawyers Association
  41. Meet the 2017-2018 Women at Sundance Fellows, Sundance Institute, November 2, 2017
  42. "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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