Third Act
Generation Films and Independent Lens, in association with JANM’s Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center, present Third Act, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “The Godfather of Asian American film” but his son and MAC Director, Tadashi Nakamura, calls him Dad. A legendary photographer, filmmaker, and activist, Robert was on JANM’s original advisory committee that developed the Museum in 1985. He also founded the Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center (MAC) and the JANM Moving Image and Photographic Archive. In Third Act, Tad uses the lessons his dad taught him to decipher the legacy of an aging man who was a child survivor of the World War II 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 Robert’s memory, Tad sets out to retrieve his story—and in the process discovers his own.
Third Act is a co-production of Generation Films LLC, CAAM, and ITVS, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), in association with PBS for Independent Lens.
For more information visit thirdactfilm.com
Upcoming Screenings
- October 10, 2025
Santa Cruz, CA | Santa Cruz Film Festival
- October 17, 2025
Sunnyvale, CA | Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival
- October 17, 2025
Honolulu,HI | Hawai‘i International Fiim Festival
Bios
Tadashi Nakamura
Tadashi Nakamura is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and the director of JANM’s Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center. His films include Mele Murals (2016), Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings (2013), A Song for Ourselves (2009), and Pilgrimage (2006). He is currently a mentor for the 2024 CAAM Fellowship and recipient of the 2024 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellowship.
Robert Nakamura
Robert Nakamura was a legendary filmmaker, photographer, and activist who was often to referred to as “the Godfather of Asian American media.” Born in Venice, California, he was incarcerated in the Manzanar concentration camp during World War II as a child. His camp experiences informed and inspired his life’s work, including his pioneering films Manzanar (1971), Wataridori: Birds of Passage (1975), and Hito Hata: Raise the Banner (1980). As the head of JANM’s Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center he directed Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray (2001), five films for the exhibition From Bento to Mixed Plate (1997) and the award-winning three-screen installation, Something Strong Within (1994), an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. His work has garnered over thirty awards and has been written about in five critical books on photography and film.
Press
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