The Well-Tempered Ear

Watch ‘The Last Repair Shop’ — the Oscar-winning short documentary about music education

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By Jacob Stockinger

The beautiful and animated face of the young girl comes on the screen with a violin, smiles and says simply, “I love the violin.”

And we as viewers fall in love right then and there.

“The Last Repair Shop” just won the 2024 Oscar for Best Short Documentary. The 40-minute film, released in 2023, is now available to watch on YouTube.

It is a feel-good, feel-guilty story about the last shop to repair free musical instruments offered students in the Los Angeles public schools. But it is also a meditation on things that are broken– and not just musical instruments but also people, schools and politics.

It is really a story about growing up; about adults making art matter to young people; about the role of public education at a time when it keeps getting attacked by ideologues as well as stingy legislatures, city councils, school boards  and, ultimately, voters.

Here is a capsule summary: “Since 1959, Los Angeles has been one of the few United States cities to offer and fix musical instruments for its public school students at no cost.

“Those instruments, numbering around 80,000, are maintained at a Los Angeles downtown warehouse by a handful of craftspeople. 

“The film profiles four of them, each specializing in an orchestra section, as well as students whose lives have been enriched by the repair shop’s work. The film concludes with a performance by district alumni.”

It sounds irresistible — and it is.

Here are some more background and particulars — including other awards and honors — from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Repair_Shop

If you don’t have time right now to watch the whole film, the two-minute trailer is at the bottom. But if you go to YouTube yourself, you can also read the heart-warming and perceptive comments from other viewers:

What do you think of the movie?

How did you react?

And what do you think about the importance of music education in schools?

The Ear wants to hear