Join us at the Closing Reception of Asian American Heritage Month as we celebrate the Spokane-premiere of the award-winning documentary feature, Third Act—an exploration on art, activism, grief, and fatherhood about the godfather of Asian American media, Robert Nakamura, through the lens of his son, Tadashi.
📅: Friday, May 29, 2026 | ⏰ 6pm, doors at 5:30pm |📍 Magic Lantern Theatre (25 W Main Ave)
🎤 Q&A with filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura after the screening | ☕ Free hot tea and treats from Lunarium, until supplies last
Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “The Godfather of Asian American media,” 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 the last. Watch the trailer here.
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About the Director
TADASHI NAKAMURA (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER) is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and the Director of the Watase Media Arts Center, a production company of the Japanese American National Museum. Tadashi was named CNN’s “Young People Who Rock” for being the youngest filmmaker at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. In 2025 he returned to Sundance to premiere his latest film THIRD ACT (2025) about his pioneering filmmaker father, Robert A. Nakamura. With over 20 years of filmmaking experience, his films include NOBUKO MIYAMOTO: A SONG IN MOVEMENT (2024), BENKYODO: THE LAST MANJU SHOP IN J-TOWN (2023), ATOMIC CAFE: THE NOSIEST CORNER IN J-TOWN (2020), MELE MURALS (2016), JAKE SHIMABUKURO: LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS (2013), A SONG FOR OURSELVES (2009), and PILGRIMAGE (2006).Tadashi has an M.A. in Social Documentation from UC Santa Cruz and a B.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA. He made the DOC NYC ‘40 Under 40’ list in 2019 and was a 2020 Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow, a 2022 Sundance Asian American Fellow, and a 2024 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellow.