Western Front hosts a screening of I Am the Art NOBUO KUBOTA at The Cinematheque, April 9
Presented with the Powell Street Festival Society, Annette Mangaard’s documentary captures the life of the titular Japanese Canadian artist
SPONSORED POST BY Western Front
Video still of Annette Mangaard’s I Am the Art NOBUO KUBOTA. Photo courtesy of the artist
Western Front and the Powell Street Festival Society are presenting a screening of Annette Mangaard’s 2025 documentary I Am the Art NOBUO KUBOTA at The Cinematheque.
I Am the Art is a bold yet intimate portrait of multidisciplinary artist Nobuo Kubota, a Japanese Canadian trailblazer whose creative practice never stopped evolving. From early sculpture and painting to sound poetry, installation, film, avant-garde jazz, and live performance, Kubota spent a lifetime breaking rules and fusing East and West, silence and sound, memory and experiment.
But the documentary is also a love story. While Kubota pushes his body and voice into uncharted territory, he is simultaneously caring for his 96-year-old wife, Lee, who lives with advanced Alzheimer’s. Rare archival footage of his work with the Canadian Creative Music Collective and the Artists Jazz Band, along with haunting images from Second World War internment camps, show how resilience and imagination shaped his life and art.
Kubota was born in Vancouver and initially trained as an architect. He became known for his merging of extended vocal techniques, sound poetry, mime, and electronics, and in 2009, he was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Kubota passed away on September 30, 2025, after viewing and approving of I Am the Art.
The upcoming screening of the film on April 9 at 7 pm will conclude with a conversation between filmmaker Mangaard, who is a former student of Kubota’s, and Vancouver-based artist Cindy Mochizuki.
Mangaard is a Danish-born media artist who is now based in Toronto. Over the past decade, her work as an independent documentary filmmaker has largely centred on artists, resulting in numerous films devoted to artistic practice. Her past works include 2014’s Suzy Lake: Playing With Time, 2010’s Kinngait: Riding Light into the World, and 2008’s General Idea: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle. She holds an interdisciplinary master’s degree in art, media, and design from OCAD University.
Mochizuki creates multimedia installations, audio fiction, performances, animations, drawings, and community-engaged projects. Her artistic process is often research-based and site-specific, engaging historical memory, displacement, and the invisible.
Tickets and more details are available through The Cinematheque.
Post sponsored by Western Front.
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