by Nyhle Wilson for Winter Film Festival
See the dramatic comedy Beautiful, Pam on February 21 @12:05PM at REGAL Union Square (850 Broadway) as part of New York City’s 14th Annual Winter Film Festival. Tickets now on sale!
Identity is something we often struggle with in many contexts – whether by gender, race, religion, sexuality, culture or socially, identity can be a loaded concept for many.
Filmmaker J.R. “Sid” Stokes dreams of telling stories about people from all walks of life, dedicating himself to a great filmmaking process. Acting as the director, producer, director of photography and editor can be a lot to balance, but Stokes’s hard work pays off. With great cinematography, clear and minimal sound and hard topics to talk about, Beautiful, Pam does a great job of reeling the viewer in.
Shot on the streets of Lindenhurst Long Island, Beautiful, Pam is an eye-opening film with themes of empathy, loneliness, identity and love. The film follows a queer sex worker, played by Tom Ciorciari, during the week of their son’s 18th birthday. While living out of a motel and turning tricks, Pam attempts to balance fatherhood and addiction. Beautiful, Pam does not disappoint, reeling the viewer in from the opening scene.
Pam is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns; it can be both confusing and frustrating to watch them be misgendered and disrespected by those closest to them.
The film opens strong with a scene between Pam and their therapist. This scene sets the tone of Pam being misunderstood throughout the film. To be clear, Stokes is pro-therapy. However, this opening leaves viewers with the impression that therapists sometimes do not fully understand their patients, especially queer patients with complicated lives such as Pam. Throughout the film, Pam goes through their everyday life of addiction meetings, meaningful interactions with friends and family, shady interactions with tricks and of course, drug-fueled lonely times as well.
The movie is essentially an allegory, told through the perspective of a queer sex worker. Aspects of the film show the simple inspiration: Stokes has struggled with the feeling of not belonging.
While there are serious moments and conversations throughout the film, there are some comedic moments that take the viewer out of being saddened by Pam’s trials. Characters such as Beetle and Lance the Crown provide these moments for the viewer, although these characters face the challenge of being problematic in their own ways.
The film is a great mix of comedic and serious moments, showing the balance that life often is, a tragedy with comedy. With a gut-wrenching ending, Beautiful, Pam has you rooting for Pam, hoping that they repair themself for the sake of their child AND themself.
While the film is great to watch, the set of the film was just as great – inspirational and collaborative for both crew and cast. This is especially important in this time in film, when being an independent filmmaker can be both rewarding and difficult. Stokes thinks it’s important to latch on to other creatives during our times.
The film is shot and edited like a documentary; there is minimal added sound or music throughout. This was an intentional move from Stokes to showcase his focus on the quality of the dialogue. The cinematography shines, and was filmed on a Canon EOS R6 Mark II camera with the Blazar Anamorphic 65mm lens and edited on Adobe Premiere Pro.
A fun fact to note is that the title Beautiful, Pam was not the original title. The filmmaker decided to change it later in the filmmaking process, as they found Pam to be beautiful. The title is in the format of a letter, which makes sense based on the ending of the film.
When developing the story of Beautiful, Pam, Stokes liked to get in the headspace of the characters he was writing for. While this process was isolating, the final product has a great outcome. The film is not Stokes’s first rodeo – his debut feature film EdgeX was a disturbing glimpse into the lives of various small-town delinquents and adolescent substance abuse. That film propelled Stokes into wanting to understand more about the technical aspect of making films, leading him down the path to make this thought-provoking film.
About Winter Film Festival
Winter Film Festival is an all-volunteer women and minority-run organization as part of Winter Film Awards Inc, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 2011 to celebrate emerging talent in local and international filmmaking.
The 14th Annual Winter Film Festival runs February 18-22 2026 includes a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, comedies, romances, dramas, horror films, music videos and web series of all lengths. Our five-day event is jam-packed with screenings and Q&A sessions at NYC’s REGAL Union Square, six Education sessions/workshops and a variety of filmmaker networking events all coming to a glittering close on February 22 with our red-carpet gala Awards Ceremony.
Winter Film Festival programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Promotional support provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
For more information about Winter Film Festival, visit WinterFilmFest.org
email us at info@winterfilmawards.com and visit us at Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
