The Los Angeles Times has covered the Oscars for 95 years and now it won one.
The moving “The Last Repair Shop,” directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers and co-distributed by LA Times Studios and Searchlight, took home the award in the documentary short category at the Oscars on Sunday.
A touching love letter to Los Angeles, “The Last Repair Shop” centers on four unnamed master craftsmen who repair musical instruments for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Working in the largest workshop of its kind left in the United States, the four help oversee the maintenance of some 80,000 instruments, ensuring that the city's schoolchildren have playable instruments in their hands every day.
Proudfoot previously won the same award for the 2021 short “The Basketball Queen”; That year, he and Bowers were nominated in the same category for co-directing “A Concerto Is a Conversation.”
Accepting the award, Bowers said, “Music education is not just about creating incredible musicians, it's about creating incredible human beings.”
“The Last Repair Shop” is now available to watch on Disney+ and Hulu, as well as on The Times' YouTube channel and latimes.com, as part of the LA Times Short Docs series.
