A seasoned documentary producer, writer and editor, and a passionate storyteller, Shirley Thompson is best known for the documentaries she has edited and/or produced, including Promesa (2024), Baseball Behind Barbed Wire (2023), The ‘Ilima Lady (2023), The Last Rodeo (2022), Embers of Awakening (2021), Finding Kukan (2016), Pidgin: the Voice of Hawai‘i (2008), Special Circumstances (2006), Surfing for Life (2000) & It’s Elementary (1996). 

Many of the films she has worked on have received major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These films have garnered major awards, have screened at film festivals around the world and broadcast nationally on public television. 

She co-produced Reel Wāhine of Hawai‘i, a series of short films portraying top women filmmakers. She directed six of the 30 films, produced in collaboration with Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking.

A New Orleans native who lived and worked in San Francisco and Dallas, she is based in Honolulu, Hawai‘i since 2010. Shirley is a proud member of the New Day Films collective since 1993. As a Latina and a daughter of immigrants, she is committed to filmmaking that builds bridges across cultures and communities.