Lana Wilson

Lana Wilson is an American filmmaker whose work bridges intimate storytelling with socially resonant themes. Born on August 9, 1983, in Edmonds, Washington, she grew up in Kirkland and graduated from Lake Washington High School in 2001 before earning a BA in film studies and dance at Wesleyan University. Early in her career she curated film and dance for Performa, the New York biennial, where she honed a curatorial eye that later informed her documentary practice. Wilson’s directorial debut, After Tiller (2013), follows the nation’s most‑targeted abortion providers and earned a News & Documentary Emmy, an Independent Spirit nomination, and a place among the National Board of Review’s Top Five Documentaries, establishing her reputation for compassionate, incisive inquiry. Her second feature, The Departure (2017), explores a Japanese punk‑rocker‑turned‑Buddhist priest who works to prevent suicide, receiving a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score and further critical acclaim. In 2020 she turned her lens toward pop icon Taylor Swift in Miss Americana, a film praised for its intimate and empowering portrayal and becoming the highest‑rated Netflix biographical documentary on IMDb. Subsequent projects include the two‑part series Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (2023), which dissected the cultural forces shaping Shields’s career, and Look Into My Eyes (2024), a meditation on New York City psychics that was lauded by major publications for its nuanced compassion. Wilson’s work is marked by a consistent focus on how pain and vulnerability can connect people, a style described by IndieWire as “singularly perceptive.” She has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, serves as a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute, and continues to be celebrated as one of the most compelling documentary voices of her generation.