The Departure

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lana Wilson is a New York-based writer, director, and producer. Her first film, After Tiller, went inside the lives of the four most-targeted abortion providers in the country, and was critically acclaimed for providing a moving and complex look at one of the most incendiary issues of our time. After Tiller premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013, and went on to be theatrically released by Oscilloscope Laboratories in 50 North American cities. It won the 2015 Emmy Award for Best Documentary after a national broadcast on the PBS documentary series POV. After Tiller was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, four Cinema Eye Honors, a Satellite Award, and the Ridenhour Prize. It was named one of the five best documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review, and featured in "Best of 2013" lists in the LA Times, Village Voice, Indiewire, Artforum, and more. Wilson’s film The Departure tells the story of a remarkable Zen priest doing suicide prevention in Japan. She also recently wrote an episode of the National Geographic Channel miniseries I Am Rebel, executive produced by Doug Liman and Matt Wolf. Wilson was previously the Film and Dance Curator at Performa, the New York biennial of new visual art performance. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Bertha Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the International Documentary Association, Candescent Films, Women in Film, and the New York State Council on the Arts, among other institutions. She holds a BA in Film Studies and Dance from Wesleyan University, where she graduated with honors.