Director. Writer. Producer.

About

 

About The Filmmaker


Pamela Tom is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, director, screenwriter and producer. Her work has explored subjects ranging from art and identity to foster youth, women’s rights, and the Asian American experience. She’s filmed on location in the US, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.


 

Speaking engagements

Pamela has spoken about documentary filmmaking, Asian American history, and diversity in the film industry at numerous cultural and educational institutions and companies including Yale University, Pixar, Disney, Dropbox, and Marriott International. She has taught directing and documentary filmmaking at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount University, and UCLA Extension Education.

To book Pamela for a speaking engagement, please fill out this form.

Pamela Tom and Tyrus Wong in his kite studio. Photography: Ildiko Lazslo

Director/Producer Karen Hayes, Reverend James Lawson, Pamela Tom at historic Eso Won Bookstore.

Currently

Pamela is currently producing the feature documentary, A Better Way: Reverend James Lawson, Architect of Nonviolence. The film explores the life, spirituality, and activism of civil rights leader, Reverend James Lawson, who Martin Luther King called “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” 
She is also developing a feature script based on “The Celestial,” a short story by Edgar Award-winning mystery and noir author Naomi Hirahara. In 1880, a Japanese prostitute and Chinese miner are forced to flee a small Eastern Washington town after she commits a crime to save his life. 

  • Pamela Tom is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, director, screenwriter and producer. Her work has explored subjects ranging from art and identity to foster youth, women’s rights, and the Asian American experience. She’s filmed on location in the US, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

    Pam’s work includes the multi-award winning feature documentary TYRUS, about Chinese American artist and Disney Legend, Tyrus Wong, the Emmy-winning PBS documentary Finding Home: A Foster Youth Story, about four teens transitioning out of foster care, the critically acclaimed Sundance short narrative film, Two Lies, about a Chinese American woman who undergoes plastic surgery to make her eyes appear rounder, and A Tribute to Sir Sidney, a feature documentary about legendary actor Sidney Poitier that aired on Bahamian television. Pam directed Sidney Poitier in a promotional short for Showtime’s Mandela and deKlerk and actor Keith David for the voice-over narration on the BBC documentary series, WWII: Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West.

    Pam is an outspoken advocate for diversity and inclusion in the film industry. She served as the Director of Diversity at Film Independent where she spearheaded Project:Involve, a pioneering mentoring program for emerging BIPOC and LGBTQ filmmakers. She’s a former Walt Disney Writing Fellow and winner of numerous directing awards. She is a frequent guest speaker who’s spoken at the Walt Disney Company, Pixar Animation, Marriott International, Dropbox, Berkeley Public Library, Yale, Tufts, and countless universities.

    Pam is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Film Fatales, a national organization of feature and television women directors, A-Doc, an Asian American documentary filmmaker group, and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. She’s passionate about Chinese American history and is a member of the City of Los Angeles’ 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre Memorial Steering Committee. She received her BA from Brown University and MFA from UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television. She’s a 5 th -generation Chinese American Los Angeles native.

    Pam and co-writer Pablo Miralles are currently adapting The Celestial into a feature script which she plans to direct. Based on the short story by Edgar Award-winning author Naomi Hirahara’s, The Celestial is an Asian American Western set in 1890 Idaho that involves a Japanese prostitute who commits a crime to save the life of a Chinese miner.

 
 

New Moon Pictures, LLC

Founded in 2015, New Moon Pictures is a Los Angeles-based production company that produces Emmy award-winning documentary and narrative films. Its films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, and aired on the acclaimed PBS series, American Masters. Founded by Pamela Tom, New Moon Pictures creates compelling and thought-provoking stories that challenge stereotypes and promotes authentic portrayals of marginalized communities.

 

ACCOLADES

Los Angeles Emmy, Crime and Social Justice Category

Los Angeles Press Club Award

Hawaii International Film Festival, Audience Choice Award

Newport Beach Film Festival, Audience Choice Award

Disorient Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature

Cinetopia, Best Director, Feature Documentary

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Special Jury Award

San Diego Asian Film Festival, Audience Choice Award

Garden State Film Festival, Legendary Film Pioneer Award

Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary

Prescott Film Festival, Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature

Boston Asian American Film Festival, Audience Award

Seattle Asian American Film Festival, Audience Choice Award

USA Film Festival, Finalist

Hometown USA Video Festival, 1st place

  • Walt Disney Studio Writing Fellowship

    Dorothy Arzner Award, Best Director

    Asian American Pacific Women’s Network Award

    Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Golden Spike Award for Storytelling

    Apparatus Film Grant

    Center for Asian American Media Grant

    Pacific Pioneer Fund Grant

    Walt Disney Studios Foundation Grant

    Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowship Grant

    Women in Film Foundation Finishing Fund Grant

    AARP Magazine, “Influential Asian American & Pacific Islander Movies”

    Sightlines Magazine, “Seven Arts Documentaries to Watch”

    Awards Daily, “Oscar Contenders Emerging out of Telluride”

 

COMMUNITIES

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

Film Fatales

The ACTION Project

A-Doc

Brown Girls Doc Mafia

1871 Chinese Massacre Memorial Steering Committee, Los Angeles Mayor’s Office