Searchlight Pictures and the L.A. Times Studios today announced that the award-winning, Oscar shortlisted documentary short film The Last Repair Shop, will have its global streaming debut on Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday, January 23rd.
What’s Happening:
- Once commonplace in the United States, today Los Angeles is by far the largest and one of the last American cities to provide free and freely repaired musical instruments to its public schoolchildren, a continuous service since 1959.
- The Last Repair Shop grants an all access pass to the nondescript downtown warehouse where a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople keep over 80,000 student instruments in good repair.
- Led by the charming general manager, Steve Bagmanyan, the film introduces a technician from each department:
- Dana Atkinson, in the strings division, who takes us to his personal breaking point as a young man confronting his sexuality
- Paty Moreno, in charge of brass and the sole woman in the shop, who chronicles her pursuit of the American dream as a Mexican immigrant and single mother
- Duane Michaels, a quirky, self-described hillbilly who fixes the woodwind instruments and shares the rip-roaring tale of how his $20 fiddle took him on tour with Elvis
- and finally Steve himself, who learned to tune pianos in America after surviving a harrowing escape from ethnic persecution in Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, a conflict again in the headlines today
- The film blends the unexpectedly intimate personal histories of the repair people with emotional, firsthand accounts from the actual student musicians for whom their instruments made all the difference.
- Porché, 9, shares how her beloved violin helps her cope with her family’s health problems
- College-bound Manuel, 18, states that his enormous sousaphone diverted him from the pitfalls of growing up as a low-income kid from Boyle Heights
- Ismerai, 15, whose alto sax brought her much-needed discipline and calm
- The bookish Amanda, 17, brought to tears by her profound connection with the piano
- Directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, The Last Repair Shop had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival.
- In addition to watching The Last Repair Shop on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Tuesday, January 23rd, the film is also available to watch in full on YouTube – and is embedded below for your viewing pleasure.
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