The Last Repair Shop filmmakers Kris Bowers, left, and Ben Proudfoot, right, with two of the student musicians in the film, Porché Brinker, center left, and Ismeral Calcaneo, center right. Photo by Todd Williamson/January Images.
In (3/21) Thursday’s CBC Radio (Canada), Sheena Goodyear reports, “The Last Repair Shop tells the story of the L.A. Unified School District’s Musical Instrument Repair Shop, where 11 technicians service about 6,000 instruments each year for more than 1,300 schools across the city… Steve Bagmanyan is the supervisor at a warehouse in Los Angeles, where a small, but mighty, team of music lovers repair musical instruments for thousands of public school students. One of the last programs of its kind in the U.S., it has struggled to stay afloat over the years. But now, thanks to the Oscar-winning documentary short The Last Repair Shop, donations are pouring in…. Ben Proudfoot won his second career Academy Award for co-directing the documentary short … He hopes the win will ‘help the millions of young people … who just want to play music.’… It spotlights the shop’s staff, including Bagmanyan, as well as the students who benefit from their work, showing how music has changed each of their lives in momentous ways…. Bagmanyan says he and the school district have big plans: new equipment, upgraded tools, more technicians and, if possible, an apprenticeship program.”
