Crystal balls, neon signs leading to candle-lit rooms, ladies in caftans: these 
images of psychics fill the popular 
imagination. But throughout New York City, in minimalist and homey settings, a community of sensitive individuals, with their own stories of loss and love, offer bridges to the beyond for sincere seekers. Acclaimed documentarian Lana Wilson (AFTER TILLER) turns her eye for intimacy and revelation on sessions between psychics and clients: a doctor wants assurance about the young girl who 
died in her care. An adopted young woman inquires about her birth parents. A pet medium (also a cinephile) channels an anxious dog’s concerns. Equally compelling are the questions the psychics ask themselves: Am I really helping? Do I have a true gift? Does it matter? “An exquisitely made documentary that puts compassion before cynicism. LOOK 
INTO MY EYES had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It’s the third film in Wilson’s trilogy of films about complicated healers – following the Emmy-winning AFTER TILLER, about the four most-targeted abortion doctors in America, and the Independent Spirit Award-nominated THE DEPARTURE, about a punk-turned-priest who helps suicidal people find reasons to live. Director Lana Wilson joins us a conversation on her approach to exploring an opaque world of psychics and mediums, how people gave themselves over to the psychic experience in ways that mimics a religious experience and getting to know the people in the film.
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For more go to: lanawilson.net/look-into-my-eyes
About the filmmaker – Lana Wilson is an Emmy-winning and two-time Spirit Award-nominated director and writer. Her most recent film, Look Into My Eyes, premiered at Sundance 2024 to critical acclaim, named one of the best films of the festival by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Rolling Stone. It will be theatrically released by A24 this fall. Wilson’s previous film, the two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, premiered at Sundance 2023, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and broke viewership records when it launched globally on Hulu and Disney+. Pretty Baby was nominated for two Cinema Eye Honors, including Best Broadcast Film, a Critic’s Choice Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Directing for a Documentary / Nonfiction Program. Wilson directed Miss Americana, a Netflix documentary about global icon Taylor Swift. Miss Americana was the opening night film of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, a New York Times Critics’ Pick, an IndieWire Critics’ Pick, and was named one of the five best documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review. Wilson’s 2017 film The Departure, about a punk-turned-priest in Japan, was critically acclaimed for being a poetic, profound, and moving exploration of what makes life worth living. The Departure premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for the 2018 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. Wilson’s first film, After Tiller (2013), goes inside the lives of the four most-targeted abortion providers in the country, taking a powerful and complex look at one of the most incendiary issues of our time. After Tiller premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and went on to win an Emmy Award for Best Documentary. It was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, four Cinema Eye Honors, a Satellite Award, and the Ridenhour Prize. After Tiller was theatrically released by Oscilloscope and nationally broadcast on the acclaimed PBS documentary series POV. Wilson created and directed A Cure for Fear, a four-episode series for Topic, which played SXSW and was nominated for the 2019 International Documentary Association Award for Best Short-Form Series. Wilson is currently in pre-production on her first fiction feature, Back Seat, for which she won the SFFILM Westridge Screenwriting Grant and the Melissa Mathison Fund Award at the Hamptons Film Screenwriters Lab. Wilson has been awarded artist fellowships from the Sundance Institute, MacDowell, Yaddo, and Film Independent, and has taught at Pratt Institute. She was named to DOC NYC’s inaugural “40 Under 40” list and is a recipient of the 2019 Chicken & Egg Award. Wilson is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Before becoming a director, Wilson was the Film and Dance Curator at Performa, the New York biennial of new visual art performance. She holds a BA in Film Studies and Dance from Wesleyan University. For more go to: lanawilson.net
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“Funny, mesmeric, and infinitely memorable… Lana Wilson is a singularly perceptive filmmaker” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“Marvelously nuanced and fascinating… Is this performance? Is it ‘real’?… does it matter?” – Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times
“A compassionate documentary that asks viewers to keep an open mind about this oft-debated subject, even if it offers no easy answers…A celebration of human empathy and the power of shared connection.”
– Nikki Baughan, Screen International
“Genius… an exquisitely made documentary that puts compassion before cynicism” – Nicolas Rapold, Sight and Sound
“With a cozy but respectful camera, a considerate tone that never compromises the film’s idiosyncratic subject, and a profound understanding of urban alienation, Wilson puts forth something that will make every New Yorker—or anyone who’s ever sat with unprocessed grief and suffering—feel a little less alone, a little more seen.” – Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar