Just a few of the many accolades Bertha Bay-Sa Pan has racked up in the more than two decades she has been writing, producing, and directing film and television include the Grand Jury Award for Best Director at the Urbanworld Film Festival, a Gotham Award nomination, and a New York Times Critic’s Pick.
In 2008, she founded a production company called Slew Pictures.
Pan says she is drawn to character-driven stories with heart and humor, about humans who are flawed yet redeemable, wounded yet transformable.
“Entertainment bypasses barriers,” Pan told me in an interview. “We have emotional experiences through it, and those shared experiences allow us to recognize how relatable to each other we really are.”
Her career shows this, as seen in her feature films Face (2002) and Almost Perfect (2012). Now she has a new film in progress, the upcoming Hope Was Here, based on Joan Bauer’s 2001 Newbery-honored, New York Times bestseller by the same name.
In addition to her feature films, Pan has directed commercials, music videos for various artists including Pharcyde’s SlimKid3, which was a BET-Soul top rotation, a 3D concert film, award-winning shorts. For television Pan has directed Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking series Queen Sugar, with executive produce Oprah Winfrey.
“In our progressively polarizing times, even the news we receive vary drastically in versions depending on algorithms or affinities, meanwhile in the name of diversity we are divided into even smaller boxes with taller borders,” she said. “But through film and television, any story can be brought into private homes or devices anywhere in the world, and when folks are just watching to be entertained or escape, engaging with guards down, that’s when emotional connections can be made, preconceived notions possibly changed, and commonality found.
“Incidentally after all these years working as a filmmaker, it was only recently did I arrive at the conclusion that is why I chose a career of filming fiction to tell the truth.”
This can even happen for the filmmaker.
A decisive moment for Pan came back in 2010, when she directed an installment of the New Birth Portraits, a series of short films about how Jesus changed the lives of New Yorkers — despite neither documentary nor faith-based films being in her wheelhouse and after having declined the project several times.
“Whether producing a movie that touches on a taboo subject, casting a blacklisted superstar recovering from scandal seeking redemption, or serving my local church’s ministry, I try to remember before reacting to pause, pray, then proceed when it’s clear God placed it on my plate,” Pan said.
Specifically, she told the story of portfolio manager and former art collector Greg Clark.
Pan met Greg and his wife, Lourine, when she started attending a Bible study they hosted. They have since been close friends for nearly 20 years, and Greg knew exactly who he wanted to direct the short film about his life.
“When he was asked to participate in this project, his only stipulation was that Bertha be the director,” said Lourine.
The resulting short film powerfully depicts how a successful New Yorker, enjoying all the trappings of wealth, is profoundly changed through the love of Christ.
“The clip means so much to Greg and me personally, but we have heard amazing stories from around the world about how this little film had an impact on others,” Lourine Clark said. “Greg had prayed for several years for Bertha to have an opportunity to use her filmmaking gifts for God’s kingdom. He didn’t know he would be involved in it.”
