Third Act

Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “The Godfather of Asian American film,” but his son, Tad, calls him Dad. As the filmmaking son of a filmmaking legend, Tad uses the lessons his dad taught him to decipher the legacy of an aging man who was a child survivor of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, a successful photographer who gave it up to tell his own story, an activist at the dawn of a social movement—and a father whose struggles have won his son freedoms that eluded Japanese Americans of his generation. As Parkinson’s Disease clouds his memory, Tad sets out to retrieve his story—and in the process discovers his own. The two have made films together, with Robert always by Tad’s side. “Third Act” is most likely the last.

2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere.

Post-Film Q&A with director Tadashi Nakamura and others TBA. 

“A richly layered examination of the generational effects of segregation, grief, parenthood, and art’s ability to help us make sense of it all.” — Courtney Small, POV Magazine

Part of the America the Beautiful Series (June 26-28) – a celebration of the diversity of the American Experience and the American people on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.