PAMELA YATES is a documentary film producer and director with a breadth of experience in independent feature length documentaries as well as commercial television. Her life is dedicated to social issue storytelling, revealing unreported and unseen realities to audiences all over the world. WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE was her first feature length documentary, filmed in Guatemala in 1981 and 1982.
Yates has a history of filmmaking in Latin America. In 1992 she made “Cause for Murder” about Mexican human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa, broadcast on the PBS international series “Wide Angle.” She also made “Nicaragua: Report From the Front” (1983) and “Witness to War” (El Salvador, 1985), which went on to win an Academy Award®.
Yates has also ventured into the world of white supremacy in the United States, directing “Resurgence” about Ku Klux Klan murders in the American South and “Brotherhood of Hate” (in co- production with The New York Times)about a family of white supremacists ultimately destroyed by the violence they wreaked.
During the 1990s Yates produced a series of films about poor people in America who were left out of the great economic boom. The series called “Living Broke in Boom Times” featured “Takeover” (organizing to take over and live in empty government owned houses), “Poverty Outlaw” (breaking the law in order to survive), and “Outriders” (building a national poor people’s movement). “Takeover” and “Poverty Outlaw” premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. All three films in the trilogy eventually aired on PBS. Yates was also a producer on Michael Moore’s “TV Nation” for NBC and Fox, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Programming.
NEWTON THOMAS SIGEL began his creative life as a painter and experimental filmmaker. After studying painting at the Whitney Museum in New York, he turned his attention more towards filmmaking. His short avant-garde films evolved into documentaries, often filmed in conflictive zones the world over. Two of the films he worked on were nominated for Academy Awards®, with one, “Witness To War,” going home a winner.
As Sigel pushed the limits of the documentary form, he began to incorporate narrative elements. This can be seen in the film he co-directed with Pamela Yates, WHEN THE MOUTAINS TREMBLE, a film-poem made with Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu. This work caught the attention of Hollywood in the likes of the famous cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Wexler gave Sigel the opportunity to photograph his first feature film, “Latino,” a story of the war in Nicaragua based on Sigel and Yate’s own experiences there. “Latino” was the beginning of a string of feature film achievements for Sigel as a cinematographer, among them “The Usual Suspects,” “Three Kings,” “X-Men,” “Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind,” “Fallen,” and “The Brothers Grimm.”
His collaborations in supporting young and first-time directors did not go unnoticed, as it led him to directing the HBO feature film, “Point Of Origin.” Starring Ray Liotta and John Leguizamo, the thriller was based on the true story of Los Angeles’ most notorious serial arsonist. In recent years he has entered the world of commercials, working for Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, among hundreds of others. This year, in association with Tate & Partners, he directed the BMW spot “Dynasty.”
