Pamela Tom | |
|---|---|
 Pamela Tom in 2014 | |
| Born | Pamela Tom |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Pam Tom |
| Occupation | Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
Pamela Tom is a 5th generation Chinese American producer, director, and screenwriter. Her films often explore the Chinese experience in the Western world, social justice, feminism, and religion.
Tom's family immigrated to the U.S. from southern China in the 1870s. Her grandfather owned the restaurant, New Moon, in Downtown L.A. [1] Her father managed the restaurant and mother was a teacher.
Tom was born in Los Angeles and raised in Monterey Park.
In 1981, Tom earned a bachelor of art degree in Development Studies from Brown University.
From 1980 to 1981, Tom was a visiting student at the University of Ile-Ife in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
In 1990, Tom earned a MFA from UCLA's Department of Theater, Film and Television. [2] Her narrative thesis film, Two Lies, [3] [4] screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the New Directors/New Films Festival, and the Smithsonian Institution. The film went on to be distributed by Women Make Movies. [5]
Tom began her career when she received a Disney Writing Fellowship. [6] [7] After leaving Disney, Tom became the Senior Associate Producer on the ABC Television Special The Story of Mothers & Daughters and the field producer on the PBS television pilot directed by Michael Camerini, "Becoming the Buddha in LA". [8] She went on to direct Sidney Poitier in a monologue to promote the Showtime original film, Mandela and de Klerk . [6]
Tom later became the Director of Diversity, overseeing the diversity talent program, Project: Involve, at Film Independent for nine years.
In 2008, Tom became a Producer and Development Executive for KCET in Los Angeles, where she developed and oversaw production on several national and international projects, including the national prime-time series WIRED Science and the BBC/KCET three-part series, "World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West," on which she directed Keith David for the American narration and also supervised the sound editing and sound mixing.
Tom went on to executive produce Gwen Wynne's debut feature film, Wild About Harry , starring Tate Donovan and Adam Pascal. The film premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
In 2015, Tom wrote, produced, and directed the acclaimed documentary, Tyrus , about the pioneering Chinese American artist, Tyrus Wong, through her production company, New Moon Pictures. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and was broadcast on the Emmy-nominated season of PBS’s American Masters series. The film won nine festival awards and has screened world-wide.
In 2019, Tom received a Los Angeles Press Club nomination and an Emmy Award for writing, directing and producing the 2018 PBS documentary, Finding Home: A Foster Youth Story. [9] [10]
Tom has taught film directing at UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount University, and UCLA Extension. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Film Fatales.
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Finding Home [11] | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 2015 | Tyrus | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 2009 | American Primitive | Executive Producer |
| 2009 | The Story of Mothers & Daughters | Associate Producer |
| 1990 | Two Lies | Writer, Director, Producer |
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | World War Two: Behind Closed Doors | Post-Production Producer (1 Episode) |
| 2007 | Wired Science | Producer (1 Episode) |
| 1993 | Becoming the Buddha in L.A. | Field Producer |
KCET, virtual and UHF digital channel 28, is a secondary Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States. Owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California, it is sister to Huntington Beach-licensed primary PBS member KOCE-TV. The two stations share studios at The Pointe in Burbank; KCET's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Freida Lee Mock is an Academy Award-winning American filmmaker, director, screenwriter and producer. She is a co-founder of the American Film Foundation with Terry Sanders. Her documentary, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994) won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 1995.
Tyrus Wong was a Chinese-born American artist. He was a painter, animator, calligrapher, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer and kite maker, as well as a set designer and storyboard artist. One of the most-influential and celebrated Asian-American artists of the 20th century, Wong was also a film production illustrator, who worked for Disney and Warner Brothers. He was a muralist for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as well as a greeting card artist for Hallmark Cards. Most notably, he was the lead production illustrator on Disney's 1942 film Bambi, taking inspiration from Song dynasty art. He also served in the art department of many films, either as a set designer or storyboard artist, such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), The Music Man (1962), PT 109 (1963), The Great Race (1965), The Green Berets (1968), and The Wild Bunch (1969), among others.
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Emiko Omori is an American cinematographer and film director known for her documentary films. Her feature-length documentary Rabbit in the Moon won the Best Documentary Cinematography Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and an Emmy Award after it was broadcast on PBS that same year. One of the first camerawomen to work in news documentaries, Omori began her career at KQED in San Francisco in 1968.
Tyrus is a 2015 feature-length documentary directed by Pamela Tom about the renowned Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong, whose paintings became the inspiration for the classic animated feature Bambi.
Judith Dwan Hallet is an American documentary filmmaker.
Zahed, Ramin (November 18, 2012). "Tyrus Wong Documentary Launches on Kickstarter". Animation Magazine. Jean Thoren. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
McArthur, Meher (January 8, 2013). "Chinese Brushstrokes in Hollywood: The Works of Tyrus Wong". KCET. Retrieved April 29, 2013.