Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Annette Mangaard on Nobuo Kubota: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1812

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

In this 1812th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Annette Mangaard about her facinating life and multimedia artist Nobuo Kubota. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Welcome Pappapapapopopopopopopopopopop Twat One One Yeah What Toronto

VK on a beat I'm in Toronto I'm in Toronto where you want to get the city love I'm from Toronto where you want to get the city love I'm in Toronto like you want to get the city love So my city love me back for my city love Welcome to episode 1812, like the war, episode 1812 of Toronto Mike. Proudly brought to you by Retrofestive.ca, Canada's pop culture and Christmas store.

Great Lakes Brewery, order online at greatlakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta. and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Nick Aini's, he's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts you ought to listen to. Recyclemyelectronics.c.a.comitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making her Toronto mic debut, highly anticipated. It's Annette, Mangard. Welcome, Annette. Thank you. That was quite the intro. Well, thank you.

You know, I re-wrote it a little bit, and then I stumbled over my rewrite because I've had it the same for so long. I basically, I don't think I even read it. I just sort of spills out, and then I kind of tripped myself up by modifying it, And that serves me right for doing that. Well, it was still good. Well, thank you. You know, it's funny, I just realized.

So we had a little chat off the top about the Dufferin Mall. And I realized, let me show you this. Okay. So, Annette, describe for the listenership, like, just, what, you can't even hold it if you want. What do you think that, like, what is that? Any thought? This is a tile with cement underneath it. It looks like it's a kitchen or a bathroom floor.

Good guesses. Good guesses, but... In a Portuguese home. Well, that is from a Portuguese neighborhood. That is part of the now demolished part of the Galleria Mall at Dufferin and DuPont. Right. Like, I worked there for five years at the Gallery of Mall, and a listener who was, actually, they've destroyed the home he lived in, he had to move because now there's this big condo tower there.

But he went and got this for me as like a memento of the old Gallery of Mall, the part that is no more. Well, it's quite beautiful. I just wanted, that's sort of like my art, because I kind of wanted to open this by talking a little bit about, you know, art. And I'm going to read a note. Do you know the filmmaker, Alan Zweig?

Yes, of course. He's an old friend of mine. I've known him since the 1980s, maybe 84 or something. 1984. So, Alan, who I was... We were both 12 at the time. I was going to... do the math on that one here. So I'm going to read a note that Alan Zweig sent me, and that's a good,

like a good intro, and then I'm going to tell you about one of my many deficits, and then you're going to help fill that hole, if you will. So that sounds dirty, but it's not. Alan Zweig writes in, this fellow, and you're going to have to correct me on pronunciation if I butcher anything here, but this fellow, nobuo Kubota. How do you say that name? I think I hit it. Okay, okay. This fellow Nobuo Kubota was a major Toronto artist and musician who died recently. My friend, Annette Mangard, made a film about him, and it's playing in Toronto in a month. You wrote this back when the day. Annette herself might be an interesting guest for you. She also once made a film about the art group general idea. I'm not sure how much of the art scene you've ever covered, but this could be a good place to start. if you haven't gone there yet. So I got this note, and then I realized something,

I'm going to confess to you. I think the reason there's a great lack of, like, episodes of Toronto Mike about our art scene is that I'm so uncomfortable in this realm. It's, like,

I've been, like, hesitant to leave my comfort zone because I feel like I'll be exposed as a fraud. Oh, no, no, not at all. Everyone can appreciate art in their own way. Even if that art is a,

A tile from the Galleria Mall that is no more. Yeah, for sure. So you're here because, A, I was reading up on you, and I really want to learn more about you because you are rather fascinating, but I'm hoping we can do like a two-for here and that you can educate me, this man who's sadly no longer with us,

Nobuo Kubota, if we could talk about him as well. And, of course, you have a film that's premiering December 7th. which is only three days from now. So December 7th at 6.30 p.m. at the Hot Docs Cinema on Bloor Street. Your film is called I Am the Art, Nobuwa Kubota. And I'm hoping we could do all of the above.

What do you say? For sure. Okay. Your name has extra vowels in it. You're from Denmark. Yes. How old are you when you come to the Great White North here? Four.

Okay. Do you have any memories of Denmark? Well, I have gone back a lot, so, yeah. All my relatives are there. So what, I'm going to say this like I know any. I've been to Copenhagen. I was hanging around there for a week or so just before the pandemic, I suppose. But where are you from in Denmark?

Just outside of Copenhagen. It's called Lillevales, which means little bedroom, so like a suburb. Okay, it's like saying I'm from Toronto, but you're really from Mississauga. Yeah. now some of my questions come into I'm going to call on a couple of questions that came in from Rob Proust so

you notice it's very festive in here today because I have this little tree it looks like a little tree with this beautiful little red ornament in a beautiful little red bag and I'm curious to know what's in the bag I think that like this is a real tree like it's not fake and I think in the bag is like I would I'm supposed to plant this I suppose but this is like

from the Grinch Dr. Seuss is the Grinch. It's called the Grump Tree. Shout out to Alan's Wag. And it is a gift from Rob Pruse, who was the keyboardist for spoons and honeymoon suite, and he gifted this to me on Monday. Wow.

Nice. So Rob has a couple of questions to get us rolling here as we get to know you. But Rob writes, because basically in this little WhatsApp group, I shared a link to your, I think I shared a link to your Wikipedia page. And then Rob Pruse said, sounds like interesting film work.

Her film on art collective general idea looks great. I'm going to watch it now. Ask her, so we're going to bring you back to the 70s here, ask her if she had any Carol Pope or rough trade encounters when she, back in the day. Oh, yeah.

Can you help? So we're going to start with this because it's like I'm in my comfort zone still and then we'll leak out of my comfort zone. Okay. So I knew Carol Pope because I went to OCA before it was O.CAD University.

And she was around, and they were always playing. And we hung out at the Beverly, and, you know, they were always playing there. And Martha and the Muffins were playing there. Okay, that's the next question is, when you were at OCA in the late 70s, did you run into Martha and the Muffins? Yes.

Okay. They were also playing there all the time. And I actually went back to do a master's, maybe about 10 years ago. And one of the Marthas was my advisor. Which Martha? The Martha that wasn't the main Martha. The other Martha.

There was a, I had the, the Martha and Mark Gagain over here, like, I don't know, several years ago. And it turns out there was quite the love triangle going on in that band. I think one of the Marthas had to go. Like, at some point Mark had to choose a Martha. Well, it was Martha Ladley who laughed. That's right. Martha Ladley left the band there. So you were friendly with the late great Kevin Staples?

No. So just the Carol Pope, because he's the other guy in a rough trade. Well, I knew him, but I wasn't friends with him. Okay. Yeah. But Carol Pope, and I mean Martha and the Muffins too, but Carol Pope, like, what a legend. Oh, my God, she was amazing. She still is amazing.

She still is amazing. I saw her super recently. Where did I see her? Oh, you know where I saw her? At the Neil Young concert, at the Budweiser stage the summer. Like, she was hanging out with Kevin Hearn. Wow. Who's currently in Bar-Naked Ladies,

but just did some really cool work with Real Statics, like a Great Lakes album with the Real Statics. Cool. Well, she comes in place here every once in a while. She lives in L.A. Oh, you know what? I thought she lived in New York. I think it's all.

Okay, you know what, she's on all the coasts. Okay, when you're Carol Pope, you live everywhere. Multiple residences. Okay. So when do you, like, when do you realize you want to, to, because here's a fun fact about you for the listenership as we get into some of your work. You've written and directed 16 films, and that number might be low. I might have outdated information here. But like, when did you realize you wanted to create art?

Well, I always made art. I was always drawing and I was always painting and I was always making things. And when I went to OCA, I did not study filmmaking. I studied all of the things that you could make, like weaving and clay and glasswork and woodworking and everything but film. And then I graduated and I went to live in the high Arctic for a year. Because I was doing printmaking at OCA, I went with my boyfriend, who was also a printmaker. And so we went up there to work with the Inuit at Sanavit Co-op in Baker Lake. For an entire year. For an entire year. What was that like? It was life-changing.

Totally life-changing because when we got there, we discovered that there wasn't really a grocery store. There was, but it did not have any kind of real food. And we had to hunt immediately and kill all our own food. And that was really hard. Like, I remember the first time I shot at Caribou, I remember it very well, and just feeling really, really bad. Like, oh, my God, how could I do that? another animal and then it got easier

and the Inuit don't refer to killing they say you catch an animal because you catch the spirit of the animal and then you let it go and so I killed many many many caribou and then I had a dog team that I had to feed so okay I'm having memories like flashbacks now of like I think Paul McCartney going off on like

sea club seal clubbing Okay, not the musician seal, but actual seals. And I remember actually reading something about how culturally, like when you're in the high Arctic, like this is how they feed themselves. So it's almost like maybe hunting for sport is bad, but there are instances where, you know, what you're describing there is just a part of, I don't know, part of natural life. It's survival. Yeah.

If we didn't kill the caribou, we wouldn't have had any food. So, like, they do have, I mean, how, whereabouts are you, whereabouts are you up north? Baker Lake, which is 200 miles from the Arctic Circle. It was pretty remote. You had to fly to Winnipeg. Then you had to stay overnight in Winnipeg. Then you had to fly to Churchill, and you had to stay overnight in Churchill. And then it was four hours by a Herc plane.

Jeez. And you were there an entire year. Yes. And it's life changing here. So, so in addition to, you know, you learned how to hunt. You know, eat what you kill, I suppose. Like, how did it change your life in it? Well, because the Inuit has such a different way of living, you know,

it's, you don't buy stuff because there's nothing to buy. And so you become very used to not being a consumer. I'm still not that big a consumer. And everything gets used. Absolutely everything gets used. And so when you kill a caribou, then you are going to use every single part of it. And I learned how to tan the hides with an Oulu or a woman's knife. And I made myself a parka using sinew from another caribou that I had killed.

And we went out on the land. Like going out on the land was the thing to do. That was recreation. And it was fun and it was interesting. And I learned so much respect for the land. Like I really, really like being in nature now. And I think it's because of that. year. And is it like have you become somewhat of a minimalist or is it just that you you don't seek the

stuff that many others are accumulating in this consumer? No I think it's the second thing like I just don't buy stuff. You don't you just you just you have what you need you don't need to just consume I mean I haven't been to the high north myself. Let me say what's the furthest north I've been I'm now I've been to Edmonton. Not even close. I know I definitely don't claim. I've been particularly not. Although I bet you there's a lot of people listening who haven't been that north. Okay, you know, they're probably thinking right now,

I've been to Sudbury. That's what they're thinking right now. That's as far north have they been. But, or, you know, some people listening, to be quite honest, they're like, well, I went to St. Clair ones or whatever. Like, you know, I went up to Eglinton once. That's about it.

But the fact is, and particularly at this time of year, because we're in early December here, where it is very, I find it to be, like, an assault on your, like, senses and your sanity that, like, this drive to consume, like, you know, oh, this, this Black Friday. And when did Black Friday become a thing? I know this is related to the Internet. And I guess there were Canadian businesses losing, like, to American E outlets or whatever

when they were having these big Black Friday sales. But now, all of a sudden, we had this big Black Friday thing in Canada, and it's all tied to a holiday that we celebrate over a month earlier in October. Like, I find it all offensive. Yes. Well, first of all, there was nothing. to buy up there. But also, there weren't, there was no internet at the time. And that was the year that the CBC went on strike, so there wasn't any TV. And phone, you had to use a satellite

phone, which creates this odd echo. And so it was very expensive to phone. What about to be talking about, are we, like, what decade are we in here? Just, we're in the 80s. The 80s. Early 80s, yeah. No flush toilets either. Jeez, but you were there an entire year. Have you considered going back? I have thought about going back. I just think it would be really hard to. Like, it's really expensive.

Like logistically. Okay, I see, yeah. I can imagine here. Okay, so on our way to I Am the Art, Nobuwo Kubota, I'm just curious some highlights from, like, your vast career in filmmaking. So you mentioned you went to school and you took everything but filmmaking, but at some point you learned how to make film. Because I took a super eight camera with me. me thinking, oh, this will be an interesting experience. And I took five roles of super

eight film. And then I used them up and thought, oh, I would be able to buy more, but there wasn't a place to buy super hate film. So those, it was also really isolating up there. There were very few white people. And it was mostly Inuit people. And, you know, their sense of culture was quite different from ours. And everything was so different. So I longed for magazines and I longed for ice cream and chocolate and also I thought when I go back to Toronto I'm going to make a movie and so I did I used not that super eight camera and I made a little film with my friends it's interesting how many of those friends became people who work in the film industry because we all thought it was so much fun well can you want to name I like when people

name check these like so who who were you making that movie with and what's that movie called what's it about? Oh, what was my first film? Come on, you got to remember this. God, I can't remember. If you don't remember, who does? Oh, she bit me seriously. Okay, what was it about?

It was about me and another friend of mine, and we were discovering sex and pasta. Two of my favorite things. You said, Mike, what are your favorite things in the world? Those might be my two favorite things. Oh, throw in some chocolate, though. I like chocolate. But, you know, what a segue,

but I am going to give you some delicious pasta, because you said the P word, okay? I have it in my freezer right now. You don't have to hunt and kill any cows for this, but I have a lasagna. This is an empty box, but in my freezer I have a large lasagna for you from Palma pasta. Wow, amazing.

So I can't, I don't know if I could help you of the sex part, but I can definitely help you have the pasta part. So, like, what was, like, tell me a little more. Like, I find that intriguing, like, it's about sex and pasta. Well, we were, it was pretty experimental. Sure. And we were just talking about those things. Then I got those tiny little pieces of Super 8, and I spliced them together.

And then you would have to push the button on a record or a tape machine to make the sound play. So as soon as you started the projector, you had to push the button on the tape machine. So it wasn't really in sync. So the audio and video were not in sync. They're two separate, mutually exclusive things. Okay. Okay. You still have a copy of this?

Somewhere. In a crate somewhere. dig that up. Play that at a TMLX event or something. I donated my archives to the University of Toronto Media Commons, so they've got it. Wow, that's wild. Okay, now, so where do you go from there? There are a few highlights I'll curious about along the way, but... Then I joined the funnel, which was this experimental film co-op that was very lively and very political, and unfortunately went down like four or five years later. So then I joined Lyft, which... So again, like, part of this episode is me leaving my comfort zone in learning, like,

because I know nothing about this. Like, so what is the funnel? It was this experimental film group. So it was a co-op with all these members who some of us got along and some of us didn't. This whole scene is happening in Toronto. Yeah. And some idiots like me are like completely oblivious. Well, we had our own little thing going.

You're here to teach me. That's what you're here for. Okay, keep going. I'm listening. So we had a place where there was equipment that you could go in and use. You could just rent it. It was nominal, the fees. And then I became part of the board, which was not a great experience because, you know,

I didn't know what I was doing. I was so young. And at some point, we lost our funding. And then many of us moved over to Lyft, which was the liaison of independent filmmakers of Toronto. And I eventually ended up working there. It was another film co-op, but the filmmakers there were a lot more commercial. They were doing documentaries and dramas and things like that, not so many experimental filmmakers. So I thought, okay, well, I'm going to try something else, and I started to make a documentary.

And then I worked at Lyft as well. And interestingly, it all comes around because Lyft helped me with this film because I needed someone to channel money through a sponsor and they became my charitable sponsor so that I could get money from partners in art which is an organization that gives funds to art projects so this this film which is literally premier premiering in like three days if my math is correct there and this film about nobuo Kubota who we're going to spend some time with

before I dismiss you you're you're here until I learn more about him and the movie is called I am the art Nobuah, Kubota, and it premieres December 7th at 630 at the Hot Dock Cinema. The funding from that is from this lift that you joined. But when you switched to docks in the first place, like what was the first documentary that you made? It was called, darn, I wish I'd read through my CV. Something, the art of Spring Hurlbutt and Judith Schwartz.

A dialogue with vision. Dialogue with Vision. Okay, we're here to jog your memory today. Okay. And it was a great film. I shot it all on 16 mill handheld, and it's beautiful. Their work was so beautiful. So I feel like I'm just thinking about myself.

I mean, you're a couple years older than me, of course. But I'm thinking, like, I don't even know this world exists to even consider that I could be a part of something. Like, I feel like, I guess you went to OCA, which I guess that becomes OECAD. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like obviously you're in that world. so you'd be exposed to it, but what if you're just someone, I don't know, someone going to Central Tech or something

and not sure what they want to do ending up at like U of T or whatever? Like, how do you know this? You just, what, you have a friend who introduces you to this whole arts community in this big, bad city? Well, I think you have to get out. I think you have to go to galleries.

And galleries, the entry is free and often they'll give you a drink for free. And you can look at the stuff on the walls and it's a social experience, you know, you meet people, or you can go and you don't meet anyone if you're shy, and, you know, then you can at least begin to enter that world. The more you go to different exhibitions and see different experiences, then the more integrated you become and more familiar and more comfortable.

So there you go. You've got to get out and be a little social. Exactly. I'm taking notes over here. By the way, you said free drink. Now I'm obliged to tell you, I have some free craft beer for you, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home.

No, you know, I said that. I said that because I have a measuring tape for you, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home, but of course the beer is from Great Lakes Brewery. But I was about to say that one of these cans, the shorter can, is actually non-alcoholic. It's a hop-pop. So you got three craft beers and you got a hop-up.

But that measuring tape... They are beautiful cans. I love the designs. They're going to love hearing that. Very nice. The owner was actually here earlier today for a new episode of... between two fermenters, which is their podcast.

And his name is Peter Bullitt. And I'm going to send him that clip. Yeah, I love this super light logger. It's a very nice blue and yellow. So that's meant to, yeah, it's meant to be kind of retro. I told Peter today that reminds me of the old IGA logo, but it's like an old retro gas station type look and feel. Enjoy those cans and enjoy that Ridley Funeral Home measuring tape.

Well, I'm a sewer, so I can use this. my wife is a soist she calls herself a soist but yeah you can never have enough measuring tapes measuring tapes okay so again we're not going to hit all the films you made because you made so many but hit me with some highlights on our way to the current day here okay so um well because i made that first film about artists because i was interested in art and i loved what they were doing then i made a drama and it was a hard time for a woman to make a drama in fact i kind of felt like I went into documentaries because it was a bit of a ghetto, like it was easier to make documentaries than drama back then.

And so I started making documentaries, and then I became a single mom and I had to support myself. So I made... What was the drama you made? It was called Fish Tail Soup. Okay, I was reading about Fish Tales Soup, and that's like your debut as a feature film writer and director. Yeah.

Screened at the Carlton Cinema in the... in here in Toronto and a number of other theaters across the country. Yeah. And it actually aired on, I feel like I have a, I'm going to play this. I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I'm going to play it anyways. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. Well, there you go.

We're on City TV now. That's right. They gave me some money. Okay. Yeah. Shout out to Moses Snimer. Yeah. It was great.

And the NFB also helped me a lot with that film. Okay, so again, I'm taking notes here. So, okay, so you got Fish Tail Soup and Remy Girard. Oh, yeah, big French star. When we went to Montreal with him, we went to this restaurant, it was totally packed. No seats. Remy walks in, oh, let us find you a table. It's like Goodfellas here, okay?

They just take out a table for Remy. Yeah. Okay, so the drama, but then you go back to docs? Is that what I was here? I went back to docs because it was easier to fund docs. Like at the time women were not so well received in things with big budgets, you know, because we didn't know how to deal with money. There you go.

Anyway. That's the real talk. So I went to documentary filmmaking and then because I know art and I'm interested in how artists make art, I made quite a number of films about artists and yes, General Idea was one of them. And I actually made a short with General Idea. and all three of them were still alive. Two of the members died of AIDS. And when I made the short for the Toronto Arts Awards,

Felix and Jorge were actually quite ill. So it was really hard. It was really emotionally, really difficult. Because they were just, like, in the last stages. And then they passed away, and so only A.A. Bronson was left, and the film features him talking about the group, but also it chose.

all of their work because they were so interesting conceptual artists and that was actually nominated for a Gemini Best director of a documentary. Yeah. Okay, very cool.

Very cool. And this plays internationally, right? Because you're in Italy. You're in Mexico. You're getting accolades at, not internationally, but accolades at the Vancouver International Festival. That's a general idea,

which has a subtitle here, I suppose. Well, general idea, colon, art, aides, and the fin de cichel, which is just so I could try to say that, but how did I do? Fandesiac. Okay. I did very poorly, is what you're telling me. I'm trying hard here.

I want Alan Zweig, if he's listening. I want Alan to know, I'm doing my very best here. Okay. Okay. So general idea. Mm-hmm. And it also showed in Australia, and it was selected for a special screening with the whatever the big Canadian person in Australia is.

I can't remember exactly. Consulate? I don't know. Embassy? What are we doing there? The person who runs all the things there from Canada. Anyway. Ambassador. Yes. And yeah. No, it's, and it just showed at Rhythm in Montreal, another big festival, even though it's quite old. Yeah, I guess that's like 2008, I suppose.

Yeah. Okay. So what's the next, next highlight we're going to shine a light on here. Well, I think we should talk about Nopi. Yeah, no, we'll get there. Who's directing this? We're getting there. Don't mind.

I got you for a whole hour. I have to remember my films. You didn't tell me I was thinking of this. Well, you know, I don't want to, you know, make you uncomfortable talking about your own life and times here. But needless to say, I am very curious. Again, the film is called I am the art, Nubuoboto. And I'm just going to play the trailer.

And then we're going to talk about your relationship with this man and the dog. And we're going to talk about everything. Okay. So here is two-minute trailer. Let's listen. I went to a firm for a firm for ten years. My artist's friend said, Why don't you quit architects here

and become an artist And I became an artist Because of my training as an architect I had a natural feeling for sculpture Artist's jazz band We just played whatever the fuck we wanted to play Gordon had played the piano and drums I played alto saxophone

Grim Coffrey played trombone Bob Marco played tennis saxophone The Canadian Creative Music Collective, one of the most exciting periods of my life. Barry Dubin and Casey Sokol, Al Mattis, Mike Snow when he was in town, would be there. During the war, we moved to Slokane Valley. After English class, I would go to Japanese school. When I started to explore different aspects of sound. It would bring to mind what I had learned.

I turned it into the project. It was a good marriage. My wife has Alzheimer's. She was my best friend. She doesn't know who we are most of the time. I kept all my... cuts and then just put it in like a puzzle

When did you Fun is an important You got to have fun When did you first meet Nobuo 1977 I was a young student at OCA And I thought Oh I'll take experimental sculpture

Because that sounds like an easy course. And I did terrible work. And he was my prof. And he was so encouraging. He wasn't critical. He didn't say, that's terrible work, even though I think we both knew it.

He just would say, yep, keep going. You know, that part there is really interesting. And this, yeah, you could work a little bit on this part and stuff like that. He was so open-minded and so generous and, like, really, really special. So that was 77. By the way, can you make terrible art? Like, the whole concept of art, like, can you make bad art? Well, it depends on who's looking at it.

It's in the eye and the beholder, maybe. For sure. Okay, yes. All right, please continue, because I do know that he taught at that school, I think, from 1970 to 1998, that's 28 years. Yeah, and there's so many people who are so grateful to him for being a teacher. But then after he was in CCMC, you know, Mike Snow's band, Canadian Creative Music Collective and Casey Sokol and Al Mattis were in there and John

Camovar and Larry Dubin. And they played this experimental music and it wasn't far from me, so I'd go and see them and, you know, we'd say hi and everything. And then, I think I can't remember what year, but early 2000s, I think it was, that we decided we'd do a project. together, and we heard about this call where somebody wanted a piece, I think it was Images Festival, which I actually started, and I'd never had a piece in images, even though I started it way, way long ago. But how did you start it? Well, because I was on the streetcar with Mark Glassman, and once again, I'd been turned

down by what was at the time. It's now TIF, the Toronto International Film Festival, and it was their Toronto Film Festival. And they turned me down, and I was so mad, I said, I think we should start our own festival. And so we did. Well, many a great filmmaker, particularly now, has been turned down by TIF. Tell me about it. I feel like I've been visited by several this year alone.

Yeah, what's up with that? I don't know. They're going for Hollywood stuff. Yeah, that's... That sucks, right? It sucks for filmmakers. It sucks for Canadian filmmakers, for sure. And independent filmmakers who don't have big...

machines behind them. Yeah, like, I know, like, they'll accept, like, and this was a fine doc, I watched it, but the John Candy doc, okay, is you got Ryan Reynolds behind this, and you got some big celebrities in this thing, and there's a lot of splash or whatever, but that's exactly speaking

to your point. Like, that's what they're looking for, it seems. Big stars, big commercial films. They want to get bums and seats because, you know, they're all losing their sponsors because money's drying up and it's a bad time right now for arts. So before we get back, It's called Images, this festival?

Yeah. Okay. But I do have a question again. Like, I've already pled my ignorance off the top, okay? I'm way out of my comfort zone here. But you refer to the Canadian creative music collective as if, like, we should know what this is. But, okay, so, like, you did drop a bunch of, you know, big names, like, you know, Mike Snow, Casey Sokol and all these names you dropped. But, like, what exactly is this?

This is just a bunch of, like, artists who make, like, experimental music. What is this? Well, clearly you've led a sheltered life. Yeah, no, seriously. I know Rusty. I know lowest of the low, but here, tell me about CCMC. I have lived a sheltered life, apparently.

Yeah. Well, they used to play. I'm in a Tobico, you know. Oh, that explains everything. Only for the last 12 years, but let's continue. Well, you know the music gallery? Well, let's pretend I don't. Okay, so the music gallery.

They started the music gallery. And the music gallery used to be down at Dovercourt and Queen in that big building on the southeast corner. And because, you know, I was always a gal about town, I would go there all the time. And they were playing. And it was like the scene with these experimental musicians and everybody'd go and watch them and listen and we drink beer and hang out. It sounds cool, but even when you, even, you know, the music gallery, all these things, like, I do think there's a good segment of the populace in this that are maybe intimidated by this world that exists, and artists know it, and of course the Allen Swags of the world know what's going on, and you're a key figure in all this, and now you made a film so we could learn about Nobuo, who sadly just passed away, but we'll get to that. And I think that we sort of have to, like, do like a 101, what is this damn thing, just for the, sheltered people like me to kind of maybe be less intimidated to enter this realm. Okay, so the music gallery was a place that they started, the CCMC, because they had nowhere to play.

Okay. And so they basically got a grant from the Canada Council. They used it to rent a building and do programming, and the building was in terrible shape, so they fixed it up. Nabu, who had done a degree in architecture, knew about that stuff, and that was part of what contributed to his making this great sculptural artwork. So he supervised this renovation,

and apparently it was a brilliant job. They soundproofed it, they built risers, all this kind of stuff, and then they invited people to come and hear them there. And Mike Snow, because he was a big artist, and I think the thing that really brought them to everybody's attention was when they put Christmas bow ties on the Canada geese that were at the Eaton Center, you know, flying overhead in the atrium.

Yes. And he took them to court. That's artwork. You don't put bow ties on it. Right. Did he do the audience at the dome? I can Google that one. Yes, yes.

Yes. I'm just trying. Those big figures that are sticking out. The big figures. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Okay.

Okay. Okay. He's a very well-known artist. And he sadly just passed away, right? Yeah. It was two years ago in January. Okay. See, I know just enough to be dangerous here.

Okay. So, Nobu, and it's Nobu, right? Now, Nobuo, as I've been saying. Well, you know what? Call him Nobby. It's easier. Oh, yeah. You know what?

Why don't you just tell me that the big, Nobby I can do, okay? Navi, I can do here. So, Nabi, you know, you've been describing as like a sculpturist. He's a painter. you would work on these constructions and stuff. But obviously, what is it, music, audio, sound?

Apparently, he was a brilliant musician. He played tenor sax, alto sax, and if there's another kind of sax, he played it, and he just picked it up and learned. And he was self-taught as a musician. But then what happened was that he went deaf. He developed, not really deaf, but he developed this meniars.

He didn't even know what it was when he told me, which meant that he couldn't play anymore with them. So he said, okay, I'm going to do my own thing. And when he was young, he went to Canadian school, English, and then he went to Japanese school afterwards. And in the Japanese school, they would teach him fanatics, like A-E-I-O-U, but, you know, whatever the Japanese counterpoint is. And he used that as the basis for his sound.

art when he started to do performance sound art and he would make these weird interesting sounds like oh no i don't know i can't copy him no but i mean so i'm i had an advanced screening and then we did play the two-minute trailer off the top but you get you get a bit of a taste for these sound art performances yeah and that's actually how the film started was because we had done this little piece for images and then we did a couple of other small collaborations together and in 2023 in the spring of 23 uh Greg Woodbury from Charles Street video contacted me and said would you and knobby consider doing something for sounds of the city open doors Toronto and I asked knobby and he said yeah sure so he did a performance and I made a film about his

history. And after that performance, I was over at his place who were just hanging out on the porch and he said, you know, I want to do more of those. Can you help me? And I said, sure, because I know everyone. And so... Apparently. And now you know me. Yeah. Now I really know everyone. So I contacted all these places and they said, well, yeah, yeah, for sure. He could do a performance here. And so he said, well, if you film me, then I can see what I've been doing. doing when I do the performances. So I started filming that and then slowly I started filming him in his house because he was getting ready to do the performances and then he said, you have to film Lee too because she's a big part of my life. And Lee was his wife of like 50

years or something. Right. And she had full on Alzheimer's. She could not sit up, stand up, feed herself speak anything and he was her primary caregiver and he was 91 at the time and she was 96 and I was pretty like no I don't want to film a vulnerable person and he said you really should it's such a big part of my life so that's also a big part of the film is him looking after her and I'm glad that I did it yeah and so apparently she had Alzheimer's for about 20 years years. Yeah. But he said it was slow, you know, the progression was slow. Initially, it was just little things and then it just progressed and progressed and progressed. One note I find interesting, they were married three times to each other. Yeah. Like that's like Elizabeth Taylor and

Richard Burden or something. Yeah, I know. It's such a love story, right? It's not that they split up or anything and they didn't fight apparently. They just said, oh, let's do it again. It's a good time. Yeah. Have a party. Okay. So in more than 50, years here and we I mean we'll get to the fact that Nabi left us and I want to get more information on like the filming of this

this documentary but Lee passed away in July 2024 so are you still filming them at this time? Oh yeah yeah how many like how long do you film Nobby in his family there

well so the thing was that you know pretty quickly I thought, I'm not going to be standing here holding the camera all the time because I'm spending the whole day here and I've come like two, three times a week. So we'll just put the camera down somewhere and it'll be observational. Whatever I get, I'll get. Because I wasn't really thinking I was going to make a real big film. Initially, it was just filming him and showing him what I filmed.

And then I started thinking about it and I thought, well, I should apply for a grant. And it's really hard to get a grant these days. Like really, really, really hard. And I'm shocked that I got it. So I got a grant from the Canada Council. And that, you know, then it was official. Oh, so now I have to make a movie. Okay, firstly, good on them that they would, you know,

grant money for this project because this is like a, really, this is a true art film here about an artist that a bunch of us bozos who, you know, are looking for the new Marvel movie or something, are completely ignorant to it. Well, I was very happy to get it, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so, so you filmed Nobby and his wife and everybody for three years, is that right?

Yeah. Okay, that's a lot. So how much footage do you get it? That sounds intense to me. Oh, it was way, way, way, way too much footage. Like, and a lot of it, there was nothing happening. We were just sitting around shooting and shit, you know? Well, you know, isn't that the new thing, though?

these slow-moving long-form documentaries, isn't that maybe in Scandinavia from the motherland, no? This one's not like that, no. I think Sweden's into this or maybe not like this. This is more like an older couple, what, having toast or something?

Yeah. Anyway, I got this amazing, brilliant editor, Carol Larson, and Carol spent months wrangling this film into shape. And it was, I think I had like almost 300 hours of footage. Yeah, I know. That's the director's cut.

Anytime I wait in there, I just go, oh my God, what were you thinking in it? Anyway. Okay, but so you have all this footage and you're able to put together, I am the art. I have a question. Where does this title come from? I am the art.

Because Nobby was doing a performance at Moka, which is Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto on Sterling Avenue. And when he, just before he started to do the performance, he was walking around and getting ready. And there were these two beautiful young Asian women sitting there. And he went up to them and said, hello.

And one of them said, oh, are you an artist? Do you have work here? And he said, well, yeah, I am the art. And that was the title. Right, because he was going to be doing a performance. He was the art. Yeah. Okay. Now, we mentioned that Lee passed away on July 8th, 2024, but what is it? September 30th? When exactly did Novi pass away?

Well, Novi was not supposed to leave us because Novi was supposed to do a performance at this premiere next Sunday. I think it's supposed to be called the Ted Rogers Hot Docs cinema. That's true. And it's at 5.06. Explore Street because nobody knows where it is since they renamed it. It's Fleur and Bathurst. It's Blue and Bathurst. And this is again, Sunday, December 7th, at 6.30. So there was supposed to be a performance by Nobby

at the premiere of I Am the Arts, Nobu uh Kubota and he reneged on his contract. Yes. Unfortunately he fell and he was living alone and his daughter came home and found him, took him to emergency and they said, sorry, he's got blood on the brain, it's palliative.

And I was actually camping at the time, and she called me, and I rushed home. I saw him a few times in the hospital, and then he just went. But he was a Buddhist. So when Lee passed away and I was crying, he said, it's okay, Annette. She's gone on to her next life, and then she'll go to another life until, she attains perfection. And that made me feel a lot better. And he staunchly believed that.

He spent a year in Japan studying Buddhism. He was going to become a monk. And so I think he's going to be at the screening in his spirit. Okay, absolutely. Now, he was 93 years young when he passed away. Was the film completed before his passing and was Nabi able to view it before he left us? Yes, I'm so glad.

I'm so glad because I would have felt terrible if he hadn't been able to see it. And he watched it five times. The first time he was a little skeptical. He said, well, I don't have to think about a few things that I thought, oh-oh. But he'd also seen a cut. Like, I would say this was a collaboration because he would say, stand over there and film me doing this. Let's get a co-director credit on this. Like, he would boss me around all the time.

Well, once a teacher, always a teacher. He probably slipped into teaching mode there. Yeah. And he was also a media artist. So, yeah. So I am, now that I know this gentleman existed and I was exposed to Nobby with I Am the Art, like now I'm really like very interested in his career. Like I just feel like for a lot of us, and I hope there's more than just me or I feel like a real bozo here.

But it's just ignorance because if you're, I don't know, if it doesn't reach you, like if you're only, I don't know, read in mainstream, like Toronto Star, and then you're consuming, I don't know, the CBC news updates and stuff, you might miss out on some of these artists because, you know, this goes back to what TIF has become, because they're not these splashy, flashy celebrity figures that they're often left on the cuddy room floor or typically not filmed at all.

It's true. It's actually very, very hard, first of all, for an independent filmmaker to get their films shown because Americans own most of our theaters, and they run them, and you cannot get a film in there. And so places like hot docks, that's one of the few venues that still exist, right? And the fact that they show all of these great films,

I think, I don't know if it's tonight. It might be Ron Mann's film is showing tonight, which I think will be really interesting. So they show all kinds of great stuff. People just need to get out and see it. And I know that a lot of us don't want to go out anymore, but it's very different to go to a theater and watch a film with people.

Wear a mask if you're worried about getting a virus. That experience, though, is a social thing, and it's important for us as social beings to do those kinds of things rather than staying home and watching Netflix. No, great points. Now, do you think 2025, this society of ours values art as it should?

At the moment, because we're in such an economic downturn, I think that art is a luxury, and it's the first thing to leave. It's the first thing to lose all its funding. It's the first thing for people to say, nope, don't need that, can't afford that. And so it becomes very difficult for people who are serious artists. Like, I have lived off being an independent filmmaker, which is incredibly hard. Usually I make less than $20,000 a year. You know, it's like...

And you live in Toronto. Yeah, and most people can't do that, right? No. No. I never go out for coffee or dinner. I never eat processed food. Well, I'm sending you home with dinner. Okay, great. I don't know.

And there will be leftovers. I'm going to take credit for at least three meals out of the lasagna. I will appreciate this Palma's Kitchen pasta. For sure. And I can tell you, because we do have regular events where Palma pasta feeds. I can feed you. I'm thinking now another three or four days of the calendar year, 2026. I could feed you at TMLX events.

Oh, because I, I'd love. I love artists. Like, I love talking artists. I had over, it's funny. Yesterday, my guest was the sister of Taller Cranston, and everybody knows Taller as a figure skating great, and that's how I know Taller as a figure skating great. But, like, in the 90s, he moved to Mexico and just painted, like, every single day for the rest of his life. And there's, like, thousands and thousands of paintings that Taller Cranston has. And I was gifted a print of one yesterday by, by Philippa, is her name. But, I mean, there's a whole, this whole art world. I love talking about art, but it's completely underappreciated in 2025.

I stayed in Taller Cranston's place in Mexico. That's a mind blow right there. You kidding me? Apparently there was... I told you. I know everyone. You know everybody. I know Philippa. Okay, so when Taller passed away very suddenly at 65, there were, and I hope I get the right number,

but 20,000 items at his residence there. Oh, that place was incredible. It was so beautiful. I saw the picture in the book that Philippa published. She's got a new book out about taller his life and times. But just describe it to me because in the picture it just looks like stuff everywhere, but like neat looking artistic things. But like describe your visit there.

You enter this private courtyard, which is large, like the size of, of a big yard, six big yards in Forest Hill. And there are three different buildings. There's a building that taller is in, and he's got a studio where he paints on the top floor, which is full of light and beautiful paintings. He's got another large building, which is where food is served and where he had a screening for me

and invited all his friends. I'm trying to remember what film I had at the time. You're not good at this. You're not good at your own biography. It's true. We need, like, an Annette super fan to be, like, sitting there who can then chime in and tell you all the great work you've done that you've completely forgotten. I think it was a film I did with the NFB about the fact that I can't sleep. Can you sleep now?

No. Can I ask you about that real quick? Like, I smoke weed. So, okay, so. That helps. Okay, so shout out to shopkinling.ca. You smoke weed. But, yeah, you for your, what, is this a long-term thing you've had where you just, you can't stay asleep?

but can you fall asleep? I can fall asleep and I can't stay asleep. What's that like? Like, what's a... It's horrible. Yeah, sounds terrible. Like, you don't want it. It's horrible.

Horrible. And so cannabis helps, but there's... I did CBT. No, I did CBT too, cognitive behavioral therapy. Okay. And what you have to do is when you can't sleep in the middle of the night,

you have to get out of your bed in the freezing cold. And, you know, I turn the heat down at night. So you have to go into another room and you have to be there until you're tired enough to sleep. And because it's so friggin' cold, you know, you're never going to be tired. You know, I'm learning a lot about you.

The longer we talk, the more things I've discovering about you, Annette. Very interesting. Okay, so you had a doc, you created some documentary film about this inability to sleep. And it filmed at Taller's place in Mexico? Well, yeah, because I was down there, my friend Silavon Tietamon, another photographer,

was going to do some photos. And she said, why don't you come? So I went, we got this beautiful glass house to stay in. It was like a terrarium or something. It was amazing. And all these lush plants everywhere. And I had this new film that I had just made. And Toller said, well, let's have a screening.

And he invited all his special friends over for this screening. He had a lot of friends. He had a lot of friends. Apparently, even, this didn't actually come up yesterday, but I was reading it in the book. But when Philippa, like, learned the terrible news that her brother had just passed away, she said there were dozens of people who had seen him that day and had spent time of him that day. He was very sociable. He took us everywhere. We met friends here and there. And, yeah,

and we, you know, you would go walking through, it's in San Miguel de Allendez, and you'd go walking down the street and there'd be like a brick wall and you'd, you'd, ring a little bell and somebody would open a door and there would be this huge estate. And it's like, who could imagine that this place with, he had a pool. Everyone had a pool behind these walls and all this, because it's so warm, beautiful gardens and flowers like you'd never believe. And here we are. It's like minus 10 of the wind chill out there right now. Oh, I think it's minus 20. Is it?

Okay, because I'm going for a bike ride soon, so I hope it's not too bad. But where are your willies? Yeah. Always. Always. Always. Always. Oh, so that's a fun fact that how you tie to yesterday's episode. Because I was thinking because I was gifted this print and I'm like, I'm going to put this up. I have to, like, my plan is between Christmas and New Year's is to like clean up this area because it just is collection. I feel it's turning into a little miniature taller Cranston residence here, just stuff here, whatever. And then I'm going to put up my art. I'm going to start an art collection. That's a great idea. There you go. Okay. I need some knobby art. I need some knobby art here. But okay, so I am the art. I have a couple of generic questions about the doc and about being a filmmaker in general for you. But I just want to thank a couple of partners real quick here before I forget. Tis the season, we did go off on crass commercialism and this need to consume.

But if you're looking for some cool stuff like pop culture stuff or stuff, or stuff for Christmas. The place to go is retrofestive.ca. This is a family-run place. They have an actual store in Oakville. You can actually go into a store and see the Shorts family. But retrofestive.ca, you can save 10%

if you use the promo code FOTM. For example, at my recent event, everybody got leg lamps from a Christmas story and stuff like that. It's totally rad, stuff like that. So thank you, Retro Festive. And I also very quick, would like to thank Nick Aeney's.

He's got a couple of podcasts you should listen to, building success and building Toronto Skyline. Nick Iini stepped up to support this fine podcast. And of course, Recycle My Electronics.c.a. I'm sure you live a life where you don't have, Annette, you don't have like a drawer full of old cables or old phones.

Actually, I do because I'm a filmmaker. I want to know what to do with them. Well, let me help you because you might say, I'll just throw in the garbage. No, I would never. throw them in the garbage. Well, you wouldn't because you're a thoughtful person. I knew that right away.

But that also means that the chemicals end up in our landfill. You need to go to Recycle MyElectronics.C.A., stick in your poster code, and then you will learn where to drop off these cables, these devices, these electronics, so they can be properly recycled. That's what you got to do. Taking a note over there. I'm taking notes on you. And where are they?

Well, you go online to Recycle MyElectronics. and they will spit out a location near you. Perfect. You probably walk it over. By the way, on the live stream, you're like, we have a live stream. So on the live stream, I want to shout out Jeremy Hopkins. Good to see you last Saturday at Palmer's Kitchen, Jeremy. Jeremy says, a very interesting interview so far with Annette.

I love that you're branching out more into the arts, Mike. So thank you, Jayho for realizing that I have branched out into the arts here. Wow. So we're live? we are live. I see Hey Ref is watching us live. The aforementioned Rob Pruse is here. He says shout out to Martha

Ladley. I think she came up early in the chat. So yeah, we're live, but most people will consume this as a podcast without a doubt here. I want to ask you so, and I do have chats with people like Allen's Wig and people making very interesting documentaries. And I'm wondering, like, so

when it comes to getting to airing these documentaries, I'm wondering if you could speak to the role of institutions, even idiots like me know, such as the CBC, TBO, for example, like, are these outlets willing to air interesting documentaries, like this new one you made about Nobby? Well, they weren't. So that's where, this is where I want to go before we say goodbye.

I want to go into this world for a minute here. Like, like, shouldn't they? Yes. but TVO apparently has been cut and they're not showing so many independent films and CBC, I don't know, maybe it's the same thing. It seems like, you know, a lot of people want to watch reality television and they think it's documentary. Reality television is set up. People are often told what to say and audiences don't understand that. They think that they're documentaries. It's very, very different to just...

It's very performative, and you're right. Often, I know friends who have been on different reality shows, and they're like, okay, can you try that a little more this way or whatever? And it's very unrealistic for a reality show. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And they'll get people to stand in a certain place and interact in a certain way and that kind of thing. Whereas with a documentary, you basically let them do things,

and then you observe and follow them. and record what they're actually doing without interfering. Is this called a Verite style? Yeah, yeah. And you may end up with several thousands of hours of footage, of course, but then with a good editor, you've got yourself an hour and 24 minutes of gold. And that was Carol Larson for me.

She was amazing. Shout out to her. So I feel like am I right that in the past, because I can tell you particularly pre-internet, Like, I've watched many a documentary on CBC or TVO, like many. And Alan Swig, the first time I discovered Alan Swig, was watching vinyl on TVO and just loving it and taking a mental note that if I ever start a podcast one day, get Zweig in the basement.

Well, they used to buy my films too. And you're saying possibly the budget cuts have, because, I mean, really, these public broadcasters, they're both public broadcasters, I'm shouting out there. Like, their role should be to bring independent Canadian films to us. This should be their mandate. It's true. Getting pissed off over here.

I know. And, you know, it's interesting because I think they're all going for younger audiences. And I don't know, my 34-year-old has never heard of TVO. Is that right? Yeah. Well, I'm going to tell Steve Bacon that. He'll be very disappointed to learn that. You know, I'm trying to do that.

So I have a 23-year-old, and he probably has never watched a minute of TVO. Maybe as a very, when they had that children's hour or whatever in the morning, maybe, but outside of the children's programming, he's probably never tuned in either. Although I, and again, I'm Jen Exeter, so in my early 50s, but I'll still, well, it's gone now, actually, but the agenda was a very good program, yeah. Yeah, I loved it. And I loved the fact I could tune in at night and see an interesting independent. documentary film by a Canadian,

be it Zweig or be it a netmangard, and now you're telling me this has dried up as well. Seems like. I want you to get angrier. I'm trying to get you angry here. I think I'm just kind of like I've lost hope. You're numb, maybe. You're numb.

Yeah, I mean, it's so hard now to fend a film. It's just, and I don't make any money. You know, like there isn't anything left out of a grant to pay myself. really. Well, you dropped a figure on me earlier, and I'm thinking... Where does that come from? How do you live in the city? Well, because I was really lucky that I, early on, bought a house, and I've stayed there,

and I rented out parts of my house, and I'm incredibly frugal, and I basically ride my bike everywhere, and I've never spent much money, so... Yeah, it's all about timing with real estate in this city, because I own this house, believe it or not, I own the house you're in right now. Very nice. But I couldn't afford it today. Yeah. So I have this like a haunting realization that if the timing were just slightly different,

because I only bought it 12 years ago. Like I was barely, but I was on my second marriage and we cobbled everything we had. And this was the maximum we could afford. And here we are in a home where we could raise our family and everything. But like you shift things just even five years here, whatever. And I don't know. I don't know. I guess we're paying exorbit rents somewhere.

Yeah. It's unaffordable for young people. It really is. And also, the other thing is that most of us who are older are still in the workforce. And so we're not moving over to make room for the young people so they can't make enough money. Because you can't afford to retire. Exactly. It's a vicious circle. What do we do? Well, let's say furthermore, while I'm all riled up here, is I've had many a musician on who talked about renting, I don't know, renting a flat in some house in Toronto and it was 100 bucks a month each or something. So they could be. starving artists. There's nowhere for us, you can't be a starving artist in this city unless you, I don't know, you're a trust fund kid or I don't know, mommy and daddy are helping you, or maybe you got lucky when you bought your real estate or whatever like you, but you can't afford to be a starving artist in Toronto. It's very true, and we're losing a lot of artists, and we're losing a lot of cultural spaces, like we're losing a lot of venues for music,

that's for sure. And a lot of the smaller galleries have just, they've left or they've closed down. It's really, really a tough time. And the artists who made this city so great having a great artist community that we're talking about today, but they're all like dispersing. So a whole bunch of, some are going to Hamilton, right? Some are going to Wolf Island, like, in like Kingston. Like, I mean, but they're just, like, they're port. Oh, we're in Port Perry now.

Is there a Port Perry? Yes, there is. All these ports, like, they're basically dispersed, so it's, but they're not here. That's true. And you think about it. Why do people come to Toronto? They want to see arts and culture. Right.

So what are they going to look at when it's all gone? I think that, you know, there should be some kind of a system that is made for artists to be able to afford to stay in the city and especially for the venues that they're working in and operating in and showing their stuff in should be kept open. Like there is a little, like there is a little because on the, there's a street called Birmingham in South Etobico, and they just open this co-op, these places for artists. And I know one artist who I was introduced to by Blair Packham, who is my guest tomorrow. So I feel like this is a chance to cross-promote that Blair Packham's back for his quarterly Rewinder episode. But this gentleman who had a great chat with, he was qualifying, he's an artist, and he qualified for this subsidized living on Birmingham in South Atopical.

So there are little things here and there, but not enough to sustain the community that you grew up with. No, not at all. No. Okay. So, to recap, and I learned a lot from this chat. I want you to know that I feel more comfortable now speaking arts with people. So if any artists out there want to come on, let me know. This is going to become an all-art podcast.

Great. That's what it's going to be. I am the art, Nobu Kubota. This is the name of the documentary you've made, and it does premiere at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema at 506, Bluear Street West. And this is Sunday, December 7th at 6.30 p.m. You need to buy a ticket, right? Like, this is reserved seats.

Yeah, the tickets are $10 to $15, and they are reserved seats. So it's a good idea to try and get it ahead of time, but there will be tickets at the door, too, if people, you know, don't. And I know you just birthed this wonderful film, but do you already know what the next project is? Like, are you working on something else? Well, you know what's really interesting, as I thought, I'm never going to make another film.

It was really, the sound made me insane. But I was thinking about all these other older artists who are dying, and I thought, I should do one-hour little interviews with elders before they... You're all my turf here. I feel like, yes, we should work together on something, because I also have the same mindset, which is, because I've been doing 1,800 of these things that we're doing right now, and I'm starting to think about, like, who do we have to get?

get now before it's too late just to capture their their life and times and story and uh i love your idea thank you i love you no i love that idea i love it very much uh by the way so you spent you've known him a while but you spent you were very close to nobby for these three years oh yeah like we became real good buddies and you had him like scheduled to perform at this uh event you have in a few days and i'm like what like when you learned because it i've seen the film he looks pretty i know he's in his 90s, okay? He's 90 to 93 when you're filming him. But he looks pretty spry to me. Like, he doesn't look like he's going anytime too soon. And you mentioned he fell and that's awful. But, like, how did you react to the news that your subject had passed away?

Oh, I couldn't stop crying. I really, it's devastating. I'm still devastated that he's not here. But, like, you know, I have to keep thinking, no, no, he's here in spirit. He's probably listening to us in his next life. I know because he's Buddhist. But are you Buddhist? No, but he made me think about it. For sure. Have you ever had any religion in your life? No, my parents were total atheists. My dad said the church wants money and power stay away from them. Your dad was right. No, he nailed it there. He nailed it there. But hearing, I feel like of all the religions, and again, I'm not a religion expert, I was raised Catholic and now I'm a happy atheist. But I feel like Buddhism is the one.

Like, you know, pick one, okay? I think I'll go with that one. Like, it seems to be most aligned with things that seem to be real. It makes sense. Yeah. And also, it makes you feel way better. Like, you know, if you think you're going to have another life, then it's okay to go. It's, yeah, it absolutely makes you feel much, much better.

And it gives you another shot at it all. Like, I think it's nice to know it's not goodbye. And then when he does lose his beloved wife of 50 years, they got married three times, for goodness sakes. It's sad that they're not hanging, but it's only a matter that she's going to be back in some form. And that's a nice feeling. But I hope you're back in some form. Thank you. Anything we missed that you're like, Mike, I didn't even get to tell you, but whatever.

Although I feel like you don't know your own bio, so I'm not sure. But did we miss anything you wanted to chat about him? No, it was great. Thank you. Okay, good luck with this premiere. Thanks. Why does Ted Rogers got to stick his name in there? I believe he gave them a bunch of money.

No, but still, just give the money. You're Ted Rogers. You know what? He loved the film about General Idea, and I loved him for loving that film. You know, he's a bit of a trumper, though. You know this, right? I did not know that.

Him and Suzanne Rogers are spending time at Mar-a-Lago, and she's not afraid to talk about it. It's funny, we talked about Mike Snow and the audience at the dome. And now there's a, not Ted, well, his father, Yeah, Ted Rogers, he's no longer with us, but the father has a big statue outside the dome now. Really? It's been there for a while now.

Yeah, there's a big statue of Ted Rogers. Let's, if you don't mind, maybe you'd make a documentary about me removing it and dumping it into Lake Ontario. Would you film that? Sure. And that brings us to the end of our 1,000,

8,800, what number is this? And 12. Oh, yeah, like the war. I learned, I remember in school learning about the War of 1812. That was one of the more interesting Canadian history lessons we got. War of 1812. Shout out to Laura Seagord, if she's listening somewhere. I don't know if she's Buddhist, but shout out to Laura Seagord.

It's the end of our 1,812 show. Much love, much thanks. to all who made this possible. That is retro festive. Remember, you save 10% with the promo code FOTM. Great Lakes Brewery. You got some fresh craft beer to take home with you, Annette. Thank you.

I almost sang that. Okay. Palma pasta, don't leave about the lasagna. I'm guaranteeing three, maybe four meals out of that. That's my pledge to do. Amazing. Nick Aienis, he's actually here tomorrow morning. We're going to record an episode of his podcast,

and he stepped up to help fuel the real talk. So thank you to Nick. Recycle My Electronics.C.A. And Ridley Funeral Home, Brad Jones has a podcast called Life's Undertaking, and he dropped by yesterday to record a new episode in which he disclosed some very personal information. And I urge everybody to check out a life update from Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home, the latest episode of Life's Undertaking. I'll see Brad on Saturday because I, this is a shocking announcement for you in it.

I am the Grand Marshal for the Atobicoe Santa Claus Parade, and that's happening on Saturday. And I'm promised a hot chocolate at Ridley Funeral Home 14th in Lakeshore. So I'll be enjoying that. See you all tomorrow. When Blair Packham returns for the quarterly episode of Rewinder, see you all then. Thank you.