- Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Storytellers have to adapt and be flexible.
Sometimes, a documentarian sets out to tell one story,
but dealing with nonfiction stories means things can change.
Such is the case for the director behind tonight's film.
Tadashi Nakamura set out to make a documentary
focusing on the career of his legendary father
until a life-changing subplot developed.
Tonight's film is Third Act.
Robert A. Nakamura has been called
the godfather of Asian American media
due to his influence on Asian filmmaking and photography.
In 1971, Nakamura made a short film called Manzanar.
Manzanar was one of ten Japanese internment camps
which was operational from 1942 to 1945
and was located in Manzanar, California.
Robert and his family were held there during World War II
for no reason other than the fact
that they were of Japanese descent.
The 16-minute documentary was critically acclaimed
and put Nakamura on the artistic map.
In 2022, Manzanar was selected for preservation
in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress
as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
Nakamura continued making acclaimed films
and went on to teach film at UCLA,
influencing a generation of filmmakers.
The project started out with Tadashi Nakamura, or Tad,
wanting to tell what he felt was his father's untold story
about his influence as an artist.
The project took a turn
when Robert Tadashi was diagnosed
with Parkinson's disease a year into production.
The director still wanted to cover his father's career
and time spent in interment camps,
but he wanted to use every moment
to connect with his father as a dad
both on and off camera as well,
not knowing how much time his father had left.
Tad also wanted his own son to learn more
about his grandfather.
Storywise, Tad Nakamura explored how interment camps
and the struggles of his father and his grandparents
helped mold his father as an artist.
Tad used his own skills as a director
to get his dad to open up about the bitterness he felt
as a young man.
He learned that it was filmmaking and photography
that brought Robert Nakamura out of his depression
and put him on the path
to becoming an advocate for Asian Americans
and a civil rights activist.
During the film,
the director dives into the art of filmmaking,
which, given his lineage, would've been hard not to do,
as Tad's mother, Karen Ishizuka, is also a documentarian.
She not only produced her husband's films,
she still found time to establish herself as a writer.
The entire family has filmmaking in their blood.
Third Act is a love letter from Tad to Robert.
The challenge for the son was to make a film
celebrating the career of his legendary father
while also establishing his own talents as a filmmaker.
Tad's won many awards as a director.
Third Act was nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize
at Sundance.
Who would've thought it would be the father
who helped his son escape the shadow...of his father.
Third Act starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.