Premieres Monday, May 25, 2026 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+
Generations of artists refer to Robert A. Nakamura as “The Godfather of Asian American Media,” but his filmmaker son, Tad, sees him simply as Dad. As the filmmaking son of a legendary figure, Tad uses the lessons his father taught him to explore the legacy of an aging man who endured the traumatic experiences of a child survivor of the mass WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans without due process.
Robert’s life is marked by his success as a photographer, which he ultimately abandoned to tell his own story. He was also an activist at the forefront of a burgeoning social movement, and a father whose struggles won his son freedoms that were denied to Japanese Americans of his generation.
As Parkinson's disease clouds his memory and a growing threat to American democracy casts a shadow over his life's work, Tad embarks on a mission to preserve his father's story—and, in the process, discovers his own.
During World War II, Robert was forcibly removed from his home and imprisoned with his family behind barbed wire for three years, along with 120,000 Americans and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry who were denied due process and citizenship rights.
While much of the U.S. was unaware of the unconstitutional round-up, Robert sought to make sense of the trauma through his work. Despite finding success as a photographer, he felt isolated in a field dominated by white colleagues, and even his widely praised work left him with a sense of meaninglessness.
In his mid-thirties, Robert pivoted to filmmaking and teaching, using his art to grapple with the emotional scars of his community’s wartime detention. His media activism during the social upheaval of the 1960s and ’70s played a crucial role in shaping the Asian Pacific American consciousness. In many ways, Robert’s story mirrors his son's.
As his father's Parkinson's diagnosis progresses, and as Tad begins to understand the depth of the emotional scars left by the country's betrayal, he is confronted with the long-term effects of historical trauma, the anxieties of aging, and the role-reversal between father and son. The two have made films together, with Robert always by Tad’s side. "Third Act" will likely be their final collaboration.
Watch On Your Schedule: INDEPENDENT LENS "Third Act" will be available to stream with KPBS+ is a new free streaming video app designed for ease and enjoyment everywhere you watch including Roku, smart TVs and mobile devices. It’s locally curated for San Diego by the KPBS programming team. With a clean and intuitive design, discovering and enjoying KPBS and PBS content on-demand has never been easier.
You can also tune in live to watch our four TV channels in real time: KPBS, KPBS 2, Create, KPBS Kids 24/7. We also added a new channel - FNX (First Nation Experience). Your KPBS Passport member benefit works on KPBS+ too! You’ll have access to even more great shows when you simply log in with your KPBS Passport account.
Credits: A Film by Tadashi Nakamura. 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.
