Filmmaker Lana Wilson never thought about psychics. But the morning after Election Day in 2016, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he came across a sign promising a “$5 psychic reading” and signed on.
Much to his surprise, he found the experience quite profound. He can barely remember what he said, but it was emotional and fun. And it will set him on a seven-year journey to make a documentary about this strange and misunderstood tradition, “Look Into My Eyes,” which opens in theaters this week.
“I think the whole psychic tradition is wrong,” Wilson said. “I have trivialized it and see it as this ridiculous thing, despite the fact that millions of people around the world participate in it… I have had a personal experience where I, as a lifelong skeptic, found comfort in the psychic one day. So part of the perspective My first question is what if it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not?
In the years since that meeting, Wilson’s own profile has grown significantly for documentaries about Taylor Swift, “Miss Americana,” and Brooke Shields, “Pretty Baby.” But the idea of ​​the paranormal persists. The film is, without judgment, funny and entertaining, taking the audience into the house, and session, of some New York City psychics.
Wilson spoke with The Associated Press about his process, revelations and why he decided not to take Shields up on his offer to be one of the subjects of this topic. Notes have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: Do you find many of your friends share your assumptions about psychics?
WILSON: One of my closest friends was a therapist and he got it right away. He’s like, “This is very different from therapy. But, well, that’s what’s interesting about it. You can believe or not believe in this supernatural part, but there’s an undeniable human connection. And that’s what’s fascinating and complex and rich and can bring up questions The other thing is that my therapist once said that the emotional experience is real to the person experiencing it. But the emotional experience is real or at least makes no sense to me about my relationship with movies and art. For example, I go to the cinema dreaming of connection and some kind of emotional catharsis. It is constructed, but it also feels very real and sometimes more real than real life This is active for me when making a movie. Can it be artificial and real at the same time?
AP: How did you choose your character?
WILSON: I and three other people who work with me see over 100 psychics in all five boroughs of New York. Then we will meet and compare notes and discuss. I very quickly moved from storefront psychics and gravitating to a very different type of practitioner who works a little more at the intersection with therapy. They turned out to have a surprising amount in common. Many of them are former actors and creative people and writers. Some of them are diehard cinephiles. Then I learned during the filming that many psychics share a deep experience of personal loss or some trauma that has affected them all their lives.
AP: Were you tempted to add this celebrity element, after the film about Taylor Swift and Brooke Shields?
WILSON: Brooke, who is just the most incredible person, she offered at one point. He was like, “Do you want me to read it in the movie?” I actually think that it would be amazing that it deserves its own movie, because imagine, Brooke sees a psychic and then channels her dead mother?
I had the idea for this movie before I started “Miss Americana.” I’m very happy that I made those two films and then came back because I learned a lot about filmmaking from those two experiences. I think the biggest thing is that all of us, whether we are famous or not, we all want witnesses to see ourselves. I realized that I have a lot in common with psychics: These people are sitting in front of us and all their fragility and vulnerability and humanity, and they continue to believe in a way that will not hurt them. with what we talk and see and share. That parallel was a big part of this movie for me as well.