The 2017 XBIZ Awards winner for Gay Director of the Year learned in an unusual way she was crowned the industry’s top helmer. “I was cleaning out a house and taking out the garbage when I found out,” divulged mr. Pam. “I wish I was there! It was so anticlimactic! We had rented a house in Vegas (for a location shoot) and we were packing out. I was literally taking out the garbage.” Nevertheless, she gushed with her customary enthusiasm about the win. “I’m so honored! It’s so cool. It was actually cute because I was on the set, doing what I love, when I found out.”
Pam is house director (as well as editor, cameraperson and tireless cheerleader) for NakedSword Originals and her prolific output for 2016 includes “Fuck You, I’m Infamous,” which cleverly put an erotic spin on the real-life rap sheets, Twitter wars and internet beefs of its cast, and “Berkeley,” both 2017 XBIZ Awards nominees for Gay Movie of the Year. The latter includes a scorching, sensual and romantic scene between a pair of new college roommates — one Jewish, one Palestinian. She’d been mulling the idea ever since she first visited the country to shoot “Men of Israel” and “Inside Israel” with Lucas Entertainment; in fact, Pam recently returned from shooting a new film in Tel Aviv with her NakedSword crew.
I decided to quit my job and go on this three-week cowboy shoot. I’m so glad I did it. It changed my life. That first scene with Dean and Marcus! I was so lucky to have that be the first scene I was shooting. It was so magical. -Mr. Pam, Director
“It’s called ‘Kiss and Tel Aviv.’ I did a contest on Facebook and asked people to name the movie because when I got back I was just brain-dead,” she noted. “We had about 122 suggestions and that was the winner (from) a guy named Glen who lives in New York. Thank you, Glen!” A return trip is in the works and she has plans to film in Bethlehem. “Why not expand on that idea of an Israeli-Palestinian love affair and take it a step further and actually go to the places? Israel is actually really supportive of filmmaking. I don’t know how they’d feel about a gay adult erotic film, but they supported us in the past when we were there,” she mused. “And I know they were watching us shoot on the beach and they didn’t say anything. We had military helicopters go by while the guys were fucking and nothing happened. I love danger!”
The XBIZ Awards win is particularly sweet for Pam because 2017 is her 21st year of working in adult entertainment (“I’m finally an adult!”). She began editing films in 1996 and expanded further into direction and videography with “The Tim & Roma” show for Naked Sword, featuring Sister Roma and Tim Valenti, where she also polished her brassy, bawdy, high-energy persona.
Her adult career kicked into high gear when she was invited to join a documentary crew chronicling the production of “BuckleRoos,” a lavish two-part cowboy epic from Colt Studios featuring A-listers Dean Phoenix and Marcus Iron and directed by industry legend Jerry Douglas. “I decided to quit my job and go on this three-week cowboy shoot. I’m so glad I did it. It changed my life. That first scene with Dean and Marcus! I was so lucky to have that be the first scene I was shooting. It was so magical. And with that being where I started, it was like, okay, everything has to be that intense and have that kind of high production quality.”
Pam realizes she took an enormous leap of faith by quitting her job to pursue an opportunity with no promise of what might happen beyond it. She’d recently suffered the loss of several family members and found she couldn’t bear going back to her regular desk job. Instead, she took inspiration from the boldness of erotica pioneers and sex educators Annie Sprinkle and Carol Queen. “I’d been dabbling in porn. I just decided to totally commit to it,” Pam recalled. “After those kind of life-changing events, you just don’t give a fuck. I don’t care what people think of me. I have to do what makes me happy. And I knew: this is gonna make me happy.”
She noted that porn “gave me a new family. People come to porn for so many different reasons. A lot of them are a little lost. And I’m able to help these younger guys I’m shooting and guide them. ‘Okay, do you want to go to college? Or do you want to learn a trade?’ I adopt my ‘porn sons’ and take them under my wing and help them out.”
Pam’s maternal instincts and open celebration of sex and sexuality has helped smooth over tensions with the occasional gay male performer who is uncomfortable with a woman guiding the action. She affectionately describes herself as “a dirty faggot” who quickly puts the men on her sets at ease. “There is no weird sexual tension. They get over it pretty quickly: ‘Oh, you’re not like my sister at all.’ If I can sense they’re still uncomfortable, I’ll tell some kind of gross fisting story. By the end, they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re going to be fine!’ It happened recently with this Brazilian (newcomer) who told (director) Chi Chi LaRue that he was worried about having me on the set. We ended up totally falling for each other and I’m adopting him as my new porn son. He calls me every week (for advice).”
As she spoke, Pam was packing for a flight to Texas to film a motocross-themed sexflick starring Tom Faulk and Ryan Rose as well as prepping numerous upcoming shoots. She is also polishing a one-woman show chronicling the lewd and lascivious highlights of her unusual career, which enables her to step out from behind the camera and the editing bay to take center stage. Before signing off, she drew attention to a recent blue movie called “Secrets & Lies,” a co-production between NakedSword Originals and Rock Candy Films. The film, co-starring Trenton Ducati, Colton Grey and Brandon Wilde, was filmed on the very same cattle ranch as “BuckleRoos” more than a decade ago. This time, rather than documenting the proceedings, she was the director and main cameraperson.
“It was so amazing,” she enthused. “It was a personal achievement to go full circle and come back to the same exact location. It was awesome. I really love that movie. We shot in the same barn! I had (director) Kristofer Weston helping me; we had met on the same set 12 years before and we’re good friends now. There was this orchard full of trees and I remember they’d just planted it when I was first there. It was just a field and now it’s a huge walnut orchard. It was incredible to see how far I’ve come.”
