And the Oscar for short documentary goes to ... a film about fixing musical instruments for Los Angeles public school students.
“The Last Repair Shop,” a 40-minute film focusing on four specialists who repair instruments for Los Angeles Unified School District students, was honored Sunday night at the Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
The craftspeople in the documentary work in “the largest remaining workshop of its kind in America” and oversee maintenance of 80,000 instruments, according to
the Los Angeles Times, a co-distributor of the film.
The award was accepted by directors Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, along with Porche Brinker, 12, a violin player featured in the film.
“Music education isn’t just about creating incredible musicians, it’s about creating incredible humans,” Mr. Bowers said in
his speech accepting the award.
After the ceremony, Mr. Proudfoot told reporters that he hopes the film, four years in the making, will have a lasting impact. A fundraising campaign has been set up at
thelastrepairshop.com with the aim of raising money to start an apprenticeship program at the workshop and to “build pipelines of arts programming within neighborhoods.”
The goal is to raise $15 million, of which $5 million would be individual donations.
The film can be seen on the donation website and on Disney+, Hulu, and YouTube.
Mr. Proudfoot was similarly honored for the 2021 short “The Queen of Basketball,” the Los Angeles Times
reported.
In its article on the award, the newspaper said it had covered the Oscars for 95 years, “and now it has won one.”
Searchlight was also a distributor.
