Sundance DocSource

About the Filmmaker

Pamela Yates is the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the director of the Sundance Award-winning When the Mountains Tremble, the producer of the Emmy Award-winning Loss of Innocence and the executive producer of the Academy Award-winning Witness to War. Previously, Yates directed State of Fear (2005), a feature length documentary that tells the epic story of Peru’s 20-year "war on terror" based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Before that, she directed Presumed Guilty, a two-hour primetime PBS special about the ethical and moral dilemmas faced by the San Francisco public defenders in their quest for justice. She produced, directed and co-wrote Cause for Murder, which was commissioned by the PBS international series Wide Angle (2002). The film explores the cost of political bravery in the lives and deaths of two young Mexican lawyers, Digna Ochoa and Marigeli Tamés. In 2000 she produced and directed Brotherhood of Hate, a study of violent white supremacy, broadcast on the Showtime Networks. Brotherhood of Hate and Cause for Murder were both co-productions with The New York Times. Yates is a co-founder of Skylight Pictures, Inc., a New York City based multimedia company committed to producing artistic, challenging and socially relevant independent documentary films on issues of human rights and the quest for justice. Through the use of film and digital technologies, the Skylight Pictures team seeks to engage, educate and increase understanding of human rights amongst the public at large and policy makers, contributing to informed decisions on issues of social change and the public good.

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