The iconic model and actress shares her story through decades' worth of journals in Pamela, a love story, the documentary produced by her son Brandon Thomas Lee.
Sharing your private journals with the entire world is a remarkable feat of vulnerability and bravery. For her first-ever documentary, Pamela, a love story, Pamela Anderson bared her deeply personal archive of source material without even reviewing it first. “The world opens when I write,” reads one of Anderson’s diary entries, early in the movie. “I try to find ways to be seen amongst the nonsense.” The hundreds of journals featured throughout the film chronicle decades of Anderson’s inimitable life, from the early days of her career to her marriages and her advocacy work. “To hand something over like that is incredibly brave,” says producer Jessica Hargrave. “There was no, Give me a day to look through that and figure out what’s in there, or catalog it, or pull some stuff out. Pamela just said, ‘Here you go.’”
Directed by Ryan White, who produced the film alongside Anderson’s son Brandon Thomas Lee, Hargrave, and Julia Nottingham, the documentary shifts the narrative of the magnetic blonde back to the only woman who can properly tell it. Anderson — legend, mother, activist, bombshell — ushers us through her singular experiences by way of her meticulously kept journals, always tempering the heartbreaks and triumphs with a sense of humor and hope.
Throughout the myriad yellow legal pads; marble notebooks with hearts shot through with arrows doodles; and spiral-bound pages with pink furry covers, what remains most consistent is Anderson’s charisma and openness. “Maybe this is inspiring people to tell their story,” Anderson says. “Everyone has the right to their story and to their memories.”
