Independent Lens
Down a Dark Stairwell
A Chinese American cop shoots and kills an innocent black man; suddenly two marginalized communities must navigate an uneven criminal justice system together.
Third Act
As father and son, Asian American filmmakers Robert and Tadashi Nakamura use their shared medium to explore generational trauma, expressing previously silenced emotions.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Diversity Development Fund
- Series and Special Projects
Director
Tad Nakamura
Tadashi Nakamura was the youngest filmmaker at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. His work includes: Emmy Award-nominated Mele Murals (PBS and Al Jazeera), Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings (PBS) and trilogy Yellow Brotherhood, Pilgrimage, and A Song for Ourselves. Nakamura has a M.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz, and a B.A. from UCLA.
Producer
Eurie Chung
Eurie Chung is a Peabody Award-winning documentary producer. Leading Flash Cuts, a post-production facility, with Walt Louie, she has supported filmmakers for over 15 years. Her work includes the five-part PBS docuseries Asian Americans, Mele Murals, and is currently in post-production on Third Act. She is a 2024 Sundance Producers Lab Fellow.
Consulting Producer
Ursula Liang
Ursula Liang is a journalist and has worked for outlets like The New York Times Op-Docs, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and ESPN The Magazine. Her debut 9-Man aired on America ReFramed. Liang also works for The 2050 Group, is a founding member of the Filipino American Museum, and sits on the advisory board of The Dynasty Project.
- Other ITVS Films
- Down a Dark Stairwell
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The Film
Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura the godfather of Asian American film, but Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. Born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrant parents and growing up in Los Angeles, the elder Nakamura thought of himself as an all-American boy until after Pearl Harbor, when Japanese Americans were rounded up and imprisoned; he spent three years in an American concentration camp and a lifetime coming to grips with how his family was treated. Recalling the impact of negative media images, he reinvented himself as a filmmaker and teacher, gave voice and vision to the burgeoning Asian American consciousness in the 1960s, and spent the rest of his career reversing—and teaching others to reverse—ethnic stereotypes. Shortly after Robert retired, the Trump era and his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease tore open the psychological wounds he thought were healed.
Third Act is structured chronologically around three phases of Tadashi’s father’s life: becoming an artist in Los Angeles after WWII, finding his path, and dealing with Parkinson’s and PTSD. Together, father and son function as the film's central characters; they use their shared medium of film to embody emotions that they had been hesitant to express directly. In some ways, Robert’s story is Tadashi’s story. Through making this film, Tadashi discovers that he also inherited his community’s historical trauma, in addition to the anxieties of old age, illness, and the final act of losing his father. Tadashi made all of his films with Robert Nakamura at his side. Third Act is likely the last.
