Schedule of Events

1:00 pm - READY, SET, PITCH! at KOHO Creative Hub

120 mins

The 2025 CAAM Fellows Sue Ding, Manish Khanal and Angad Singh will have eight minutes to present their documentary pitches to a jury of representatives from funders like Independent Television Service (ITVS), Catapult Film Fund, American Documentary (AmDoc/POV) and SFFILM. The winning pitch will be announced on Friday, May 9. The winner will receive a $10,000 grant from CAAM supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Pitch will be followed by an opportunity to Meet & Mingle hosted by A-Doc.

12:30 PM REFRESHMENTS
1 PM READY, SET, PITCH!
3 PM MEET & MINGLE with A-Doc

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6:30 pm - OPENING NIGHT: THIRD ACT at AMC Kabuki 1

Directed by Tadashi Nakamura

Tadashi Nakamura (Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement, Mele Murals) has known since he was a kid that he’d have to make a documentary about his father. Robert A. Nakamura, now in his late 80s, is a legend in Asian American independent film circles. His 1972 short documentary, Manzanar, and 1980 feature, Hito Hata, were some of the earliest films about Japanese American incarceration.

An accomplished documentarian himself, Tadashi splits his father’s life into three acts. First, as a young boy in Manzanar, Robert wished he was anything but Japanese American. Second, as an aspiring filmmaker, he “left a lucrative photography career to find fulfillment in documenting the emerging Asian American political movement. And third, the aging “Godfather of Asian American Cinema” faces his inevitable decline, after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Tadashi also represents the third act of his family’s American immigration story, and Third Act grapples with how he can keep his grandfather’s and father’s stories alive for future generations.

The CAAM-funded film, co-executive produced by Spencer Nakasako (a.k.a. Don Bonus, Refugee), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and this is the Bay Area premiere. Director Tadashi Nakamura is expected to attend as well as Executive Producer Diane Quon (New Wave, Home Court), producers Eurie Chung (Asian Americans, Mele Murals) and Ursula Liang (9-Man, Down a Dark Stairwell), and Editor Victoria Chalk (Ashima, A Decent Home).

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9:30 pm - OPENING NIGHT GALA at Asian Art Museum

After our Opening Night screening, head over to the Asian Art Museum for the social event of the season! Sample bites and beverages from some of the Bay Area’s most exciting emerging restaurants and pop-up chefs and explore the captivating, globe-spanning galleries of the Asian Art Museum, including Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War, a critically acclaimed multi-media exhibition that represented Taiwan at the 60th Venice Biennale.

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