A Última Loja de Consertos

I cannot stress enough the value of watching this moving Documentary. As another user said, "not nearly long enough." It left me wanting more for sure- is a good way. Wonderfully written, shot, & edited. And the sound! Using the kids in the score recording was genius. You will not be sorry you spent the time. The experience helps remind you people have stories and are worth spending the time to listen & learn about. Music is such an important part of our lives. In so many unique and various ways sound touches us all. Whether you play or just listen- even if you play for your own pleasure or professionally, or casually listen or you're a diehard hard fan, music moves you.

This is quite an engaging documentary that introduces us to four specialist technicians who maintain some of the musical instruments that are provided free to pupils in the Los Angeles school system. Prefaced by a few words from each of the children who benefit from the violins, tubas, pianos and saxophones to name but a few, we then meet four of the people - from a variety of interesting, sometimes quite traumatic, backgrounds - as they show us just how meticulously they work to keep these instruments alive and useful. To be honest, I could have been doing with just a little more performance from the would-be students, but these characters who put their heart and soul into preserving these musical tools come across as dedicated and passionate. The same can be said for the students - especially the young violinist at the start whose smile just about says it all. We end with a rousing section from the alumni of students who have benefitted over the years and this is a fine testament to the role of music in an education system that doesn't just focus on the academic.

It is a film as useful kick to hope. Maybe, in some measure, to forms of joy.

Four people, fixing musical instruments of students, offer their stories.

Few young musicians confesse their strong connection with their instrument.

In Los Angeles , a repair shop, maybe the last, offering, from 1959, the support for good fonction of musical instruments.

Not the story itself is real significant, but the state inspired by the words of this people. Because it is a sort of return to the comfort of survive, in almost brave manner, of a stable old world , defined by dedication and by passion and personal dramas and careful gestures and empathy.

Beautiful documentary, no doubts. But, first, profound useful.

Every once in a while, you need a movie like Kris Bowers & Ben Proudfoot's "The Last Repair Shop" to make you feel good about the world we live in. It's a reminder of the many stories we all have of ourselves that eventually shape us to be who we are and how these stories can go on to make an impact on the lives of those we wouldn't even know.

With some crisp and striking cinematography, and an array of stories; each interesting and each heartfelt, the movie documents the people behind the only remaining repair shop that fixes musical instruments for its public school students at no cost. Contributing to the dreams of more than 80,000 students, and now inspiring an audience with their passion for what they do, the craftsmen at "The Last Repair Shop" make this documentary short film one of the year's finest.

Far too short as it hardly touches on the actual repairs, instrument ones that is. That could have been technically interesting, but this is a story of how music and the provision of the instruments, often to those too poor to afford them can change or be a new start in their young lives. This is brought into focus by the same effects that music had on the repair staff themselves, as they each recount the difficulties and for some the deep emtional trauma that they still carry. For one of whom, reminded me of the stories told and witnessed by Jewish families, with the same lasting bewilderment of how, why then their lives changed in an instant., what it was is no longer.