If you still haven’t heard of Pam Nasr, you will soon. The 26-year-old Lebanese-born and Dubai-raised style expert – who’s strongly passionate about leopard prints and cowboy boots – has already made a name for herself in the Middle East, working as a stylist and creative consultant for emerging regional labels, such as Nafsika Skourti. While living in Beirut (after having graduated from London College of Fashion in 2014) she also started creating amateur films, documenting the everyday life of characters she met along her way. “It was a way to get to know myself and my heritage”, she says.
Last year, she very spontaneously decided to move to New York to study an intensive masters program in directing. As she graduates, her first short film titled Clams Casino (shot by Diana Matos) is premiering on June 23. It follows the lives of four Latina women – two mothers and two daughters – who struggle to communicate and understand each other. By examining toxic mother-daughter relationships, Nasr seeks to explore the human desire for closeness and satiation and questions the meaning of loneliness in contemporary societies. “Clams Casino was conceived after coming across a South Korean online phenomenon known as “Mukbang”, where people eat large amounts of food on a live-streaming website for money. It raised many questions: why do people do it, who are the people that partake in it? And why do others log on and watch them eat? Who are they?”, she says.
As MILLE caught up with Nasr, we’ve asked her to round up her favourite spots to eat, shop, drink and hang in the big apple.
Favourite Place to Get Coffee
I buy my weekly batch of fresh coffee beans from a spot right around my place in Greenwich Village called Porto Rico Importing Co. You can almost smell heaven when you walk in.
Favourite Place to Eat
Baby Brasa for Peruvian, it’s a walk away from me and has amazing ceviche and a seafood risotto. RedFarm is a great Chinese restaurant on a super cozy street that has such great energy day and night.
Favourite Place to Drink
Billy Mark’s – an old school dive bar with one bartender, Billy Mark. My boyfriend and I are suckers for Jägermeister on the rocks while playing pool and spending all our dollar bills in the jukebox.
Favourite Place to Shop
Modell’s Sporting Goods – I get all my extra discounted sportswear in there. I pretty much lived in my sweats all winter.
Favourite Place to Hang
Le Poisson Rouge, an intimate event/concert space – My best friend is always on top of it when it comes to Arabic events in the city, we go to Tarab nights there and feel like we’re back in Beirut for a few hours.
Photography by Prod Antzoulis
