Oscar-Nominated ‘The Last Repair Shop’ A Gift That Keeps Giving To L.A.: Latest Is $15M Capital Campaign
22.02.2024 - 03:35
/ deadline.com
The LAUSD Education Foundation is embarking on a major capital campaign to benefit the musical instrument repair operation documented in the Oscar-nominated film The Last Repair Shop.
The $15 million campaign, revealed at an event at Hollywood High School Tuesday night, will invest in the repair workshop’s skilled craftspeople and support staff, and fund “a student apprenticeship program that will build the next generation of instrument technicians.”
Filmmakers Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers made the surprise announcement after a screening of their film in the school’s auditorium, located a short distance from where the Oscar ceremony will take place on March 10, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation on Hollywood & Highland.
The documentary short, distributed by Searchlight Pictures and L.A. Times Studios, tells the moving life stories of four of the key professionals who maintain 80,000 musical instruments provided free of charge to any and all students of the L.A. Unified School District: Dana Atkinson, who repairs stringed instruments, Duane Michaels (woodwinds), Paty Moreno (brass), and Steve Bagmanyan, who rose from piano tuner to become supervisor of the shop. It also showcases the talents of young musicians who benefit from the LAUSD’s musical instrument program – kids on violin, piano, sousaphone, sax, and just about every other instrument imaginable. Almost the entire cast was on hand for Tuesday night’s event.
Bowers, a gifted pianist and leading Hollywood composer (Ava DuVernay’s Origin, Green Book, Bob Marley: One Love, The Color Purple) attended LAUSD schools and developed his talent on pianos maintained by Bagmanyan. “Bowers and Searchlight Pictures made the first gift of the campaign by giving restored 1913