Third Act

In Person: Tadashi Nakamura, director

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Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “The Godfather of Asian American film,” but his son calls him Dad. As Parkinson's disease clouds Robert's memory, Tad Nakamura sets out to retrieve his father's story—and in the process discovers his own.

As the filmmaking son of a filmmaking legend, Tad uses the lessons his dad taught him to decipher his legacy. Robert was a child survivor of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. He was a successful photographer who gave it up to tell his own story and was an activist at the dawn of a social movement. And he is a father whose struggles have won his son freedoms that eluded Japanese Americans of his generation.

The two have made films together, with Robert always by Tad’s side. Third Act is most likely the last. Description adapted from Generation Films.

This event is copresented with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Directed by: Tadashi Nakamura. Country: United States. Released: 2025. Length: 91 min. Format: DCP. Language: English.
Image courtesy of Generation Films