Meeting Tad Nakamura

Last week, I had a chance to meet Tadashi Nakamura.  If you are unfamiliar with him or his work, he is one of the top independant filmakers in his age group.  He has garnered several top awards, including “Official Selection” at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 (see videos below).

Meeting Tad was really an aligment of the stars, like he was sent from above to help me with a problem I had.  As most of you know, Dad and I will be heading to Sendai, Japan in a couple of days, and I really wanted to document the trip in video.  I wanted to tell the story, not only of our journey to Sendai, but also as a small insight into what is actually going on in Sendai.

With the little film-making knowledge I possesed, I wondered what to do.  From the little experience I had behind the camera, I knew I would have a problem telling a story while being actively involved with it.  How do you document something from the third person point of view, while particpating in first person?  It was very frustrating to me, and I knew if I just had someone to talk to, they could help me get through it.  That’s when I ran into a couple of friends who were having dinner with Tad one night.  And like I said, the stars aligned.

Having never met Tad in-person before, but being somewhat familiar with his accolades and work, I introduced myself and we got to talking.  Over the course of the weekend, I ended up attending a showing of his documentaries, taking him to dinner, and he even came down to see us play at Lulus.  I didn’t want to talk to much “business” with him since he was kind of on vacation, but I did hear some things that helped my situation.

So now, I set off on my journey… to document my journey.  Haha.  The formula is coming together: I got the idea, Tad gave me the inspiration to do it, and now I just have to figure out how.  Check back here for updates on my trip to Sendai, and hopefully I will be able to get pictures and video up.

Tadashi Nakamura: http://tadashinakamura.com
Director/Editor

Here he is being featured on CNN’s “Young People Who Rock” at the 2008 Sundance Festival:

Tad’s documentary, “Yellow Brotherhood” on Vimeo: