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In a hidden corner of Los Angeles, a small group of people toil in obscurity, tending to broken pegs, stuck valves, clogged tubing and damaged keys – all to restore musical instruments to perfect working order for the city’s public-school students.
These dedicated professionals are used to going about their work without any public recognition, but they get their due in the short documentary The Last Repair Shop, from filmmakers and Kris Bowers. The co-directors join the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film, which recently made the Oscar shortlist of nonfiction shorts remaining in contention for the Academy Award.
Bowers also made the Oscar shortlist with his score for The Color Purple. He has become one of the most sought-after composers in Hollywood, with credits that include Green Book and Ava DuVernay’s Origin. He’s also a graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District who studied piano in school, playing on instruments maintained by the very people profiled in The Last Repair Shop. L.A. is the only major city in the U.S. that provides free — and freely repaired — instruments to public school kids.
Bowers and Proudfoot teamed for the 2020 Oscar-nominated short A Concerto Is a Conversation, which featured Bowers’ grandfather, Horace Bowers Sr. Proudfoot won the Academy Award two years ago for his short The Queen of Basketball.
In the podcast episode, they explain how they work together so successfully and how they resolved a key question in The Last Repair Shop – namely, whether to focus on the technicians alone, or include some of the kids who benefit from the free instrument program. And Proudfoot and Bowers tell us how they pulled off the closing credit sequence for the film, one of the most elaborate and delightful sequences seen in a documentary – short or feature.
Doc Talk is hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley and Deadline’s Documentary Editor Matt Carey. It is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios and presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.
