Robert A. Nakamura
4 Episodes
Heralded as “the Godfather of Asian American media,” Robert A. Nakamura was profoundly shaped by his childhood incarceration in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II, an experience that informed his lifelong exploration of identity, memory, and belonging through activist filmmaking. In landmark works like the intimate documentary MANZANAR—one of the first films to confront Japanese internment from a personal perspective—the lyrical WATARIDORI: BIRDS OF PASSAGE, and the groundbreaking epic HITO HATA: RAISE THE BANNER, Nakamura told stories long excluded from the American narrative, paving the way for the vibrant Asian American independent cinema movement that would flourish in the 1980s. His life and legacy are explored from an intimate vantage in THIRD ACT, a moving documentary by his son Tadashi Nakamura, also presented here.
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Manzanar
Episode 1
Directed by Robert A. Nakamura • 1972 • United States
Created by Robert A. Nakamura as a film student at UCLA Film School’s Ethnocommunications Program, MANZANAR was one of the first films to examine the experience of Japanese American internment from a personal perspective. Lyrical and pensive,...
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37:57Episode 2Wataridori: Birds of Passage
Episode 2
Directed by Robert A. Nakamura • 1976 • United States
Completed in 1975 as his Master’s Thesis project at the UCLA Film School, Robert A. Nakamura’s WATARIDORI: BIRDS OF PASSAGE stands as one of the quintessential documentary portraits celebrating the legacy of the issei, or first-generation Jap...
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1:34:00Episode 3Hito Hata: Raise the Banner
Episode 3
Directed by Robert A. Nakamura and Duane Kubo • 1980 • United States
Starring Mako, Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Pat MoritaThe first feature-length film made by and about Asian Pacific Americans, Robert A. Nakamura and Duane Kubo’s HITO HATA: RAISE THE BANNER captures the contributions and hardships of J...
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Third Act
Episode 4
Directed by Tadashi Nakamura • 2025 • United States
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 ma...
