In a nondescript warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain over 80,000 student musical instruments, so that schoolchildren in the city can follow their dreams. A documentary film by Ben Proudfoot & Kris Bowers.

Since 1959, Los Angeles has been one of the few U.S. cities to offer and repair musical instruments at no cost to its public school students. Approximately 80,000 instruments are maintained at a downtown Los Angeles warehouse by a small team of technicians.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students. During the 2022–2023 school year, LAUSD served over 560,000 students. The film focuses primarily on the 65-year-old instrument repair workshop that includes four workshop technicians in four departments (brass repair, string instrument repair, woodwind instrument repair, and piano shop) and features interviews with a few students.

STRINGS

Dana Atkinson

When wood breaks, it breaks in a unique way. And if you leave a crack open, the instrument buzzes. It can be really frustrating.

Dana Atkinson specializes in string instrument repair. His parents were musicians. His mother taught him that music is like swimming. The rhythm, it’s constantly in the moment, and if you stop, there’s no music. His life, however, was difficult since childhood. He thought he was broken, forced to choose between being miserable trying to be something he wasn’t or being shunned for being authentic.

Dana came out as gay in 1975, when he was 27. It was a different time; being gay wasn’t accepted. People were beaten in the street. People were bashed and killed. He eventually learned to embrace his identity, met his husband, and they have been a couple for over 23 years now.

It’s really hard being a kid. Some of ’em come from a place of love and support. And others come from huge dysfunction. The emotional broken things and the mental broken things are more difficult. You can’t glue that back together. That takes time. And it takes care.

BRASS

Paty Moreno

Paty was born in Mexico, in a town called Morelia. Since she was a little girl, she always dreamed of the American dream. So, she traveled to the United States. Initially awestruck by the city lights, she eventually realized it wasn’t the American dream she had imagined. She became a single mother of two children. For seven years, she had been working at a music store in Thousand Oaks, but she was still poor. She couldn’t even afford $20 a month to rent a clarinet for her son. Sometimes they didn’t have any food to eat, and they didn’t have anything for Christmas.

The test was the most difficult experience. Cleaning so many little parts. The pistons, they need to go up and down. The casing and the piston have to lock inside with a little guide. And they fit like a glove. Any little dent, any little scratch, even if it is dirty, it won’t play.

One day, Paty received a call from her technician friend, Mark Comeau, about a job opportunity opening at LAUSD. They were looking to hire two brass technicians. Mark urged her to apply and take the test. She had to compete with twelve other male technicians who also wanted the same position. She believed that if she could pass the test, she would be able to provide a better life for her family. However, the test was so rigorous that it made her feel like she never had a chance. Back then, there were only men working in the repair shop. Unexpectedly, she received a phone call from LAUSD informing her that she had gotten the job. Paty has been working at LAUSD since 26 January 2004.

WOODWINDS

Duane Michaels

When Duane was a child, he was inspired to learn how to play music after seeing the old Frankenstein movie where Frankenstein was emotionally struck by the sound of the violin played by an old blind man in the woods. Several years later, Duane came across an old violin for sale at the swap meet for $20. Suddenly realizing he wanted to play the violin, Duane hitchhiked back home to beg his mother for the money and ask her to drive him back to the swap meet to buy it.

Later, Duane and his high school buddy formed a band, Bodie Mountain Express, playing bluegrass music, which led them to Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Next thing they knew, they were at Liberace’s house, and they were put on the bill for Elvis’s 1975 New Year’s Eve concert at Pontiac Stadium in front of 73,000 people.

Currently, Duane works as a woodwind instrument technician. Duane dedicates his skills to repairing these instruments, ensuring they play smoothly, all for a wonderful purpose: so children who can’t afford them can have a chance to experience the joy of music. He likes to think that he might be fixing an instrument for a future Grammy winner.

The wonderful woodwind department. They all got keys and screws and rods and springs. And if those get bent or rusted, then the instrument leaks. It’s kinda almost like a puzzle. When you find a leak, you fix it. You go to the next thing. That leaks, you fix it. You might have to take the instrument apart just to get that one pad just right. You do it. You do whatever it takes because, for a young child that’s interested in playing, that one instrument could change their whole life.

PIANOS

Steve Bagmanyan

Steve, a piano technician, also works as a supervisor to ensure all instruments are repaired promptly. He was born in Baku, Azerbaijan (formerly part of the Soviet Union). Music had piqued his interest since his teenage years. His brother even bought him a guitar, a memento of that early passion. When Steve was 20 years old, he and his family were forced to leave their home in Baku, Azerbaijan (formerly part of the Soviet Union) and move to the United States during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, after his father was killed. They had to leave everything behind, including family albums and the guitar.

The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994. It arose in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region within southwestern Azerbaijan. The conflict pitted the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, backed by Armenia, against the Republic of Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey. As the war progressed, both former Soviet republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan, became entangled in protracted, undeclared mountain warfare in the mountainous heights of Karabakh, resulting in roughly 30,000 casualties.

Upon arriving in the United States, they found sponsors in Ken and Veronica. Ken, a piano tuner himself, sent Steve to Yamaha, Baldwin, and Steinway schools. There, Steve gained hands-on experience and learned the theory and techniques behind piano fabrication, assembly, tuning, and regulation. This education equipped him to become a piano tuner, eventually assisting Ken in his piano shop.

After what happened in the past, I lost the urge to follow the music, to be in the music, to stay with the music. But life brought me back to it. Ended up being a piano tuner.

Directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, THE LAST REPAIR SHOP offers a glimpse into the lives of a small team of technicians who devote their craftsmanship to repairing musical instruments for public school students. The film is meticulously crafted, with every shot perfectly framed, engaging editing, and a perfect pace. Their compelling background stories are not overly dramatic, and the film’s tone is impeccable. Every minute feels magical, transporting viewers to a world of dedication and the transformative power of music.

Uplifting and hopeful, THE LAST REPAIR SHOP is a documentary that reminds us of the enduring power of community and the importance of keeping the arts alive for future generations. It’s definitely one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen.

THE LAST REPAIR SHOP premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on 1 September 2023. Searchlight Pictures and L.A. Times Studios acquired the film, which was subsequently made available on the Los Angeles Times YouTube channel, Hulu, and Disney+ on 23 January 2024.

Whatever you do, don’t stop. Keep going. No matter how bad of a train wreck it is, just keep going. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Persist.

THE LAST REPAIR SHOP was nominated at the 96th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film. Other nominees included: The ABCs of Book Banning (Trish Adlesic & Nazenet Habezghi), The Barber of Little Rock (John Hoffman & Christine Turner), Island in Between (S. Leo Chiang & Jean Tsien), and 奶奶跟外婆 / Grandma & Grandma (Sean Wang).