Third Act

2025 | USA | 91 min

ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “the godfather of Asian American media,” but filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. What begins as a documentary about his father’s career takes a turn with a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis, and evolves into an exploration on art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.

LONG SYNOPSIS

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.

Director Tadashi Nakamura

Writers Victoria Chalk, Tadashi Nakamura

Producers Tadashi Nakamura, Eurie Chung

Executive Producers Spencer Nakasako, Diane Quon, Carrie Lozano, Lois Vossen, Donald Young

Co-Producers Lou Nakasako, Alexandra Margolin

Supervising Producer David Eisenberg

Consulting Producers Noland Walker, Ursula Liang, Marty Syjuco

Associate Producers Gena Hamamoto, Lailanie Gadia

Editor Victoria Chalk

Cinematographers Tadashi Nakamura, Lou Nakasako, Jess X Snow, Justyn Ah Chong, ‘Āina Paikai, Evan Kodani, Akira Boch, Quyên Nguyen-Le

Sound Jon Oh

Music Miles Senzaki