In a first, Times wins Oscar for doc short
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES has covered the Oscars for 95 years — and now it has won one. The heartwarming “The Last Repair Shop,” directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers and co-distributed by L.A. Times Studios and Searchlight, took home the prize in the documentary short category at the Academy Awards on Sunday.
A moving love letter to Los Angeles itself, “The Last Repair Shop” centers on four unsung master craftspeople who service musical instruments for Los Angeles Unified School District students. Working in the largest nights, all the hard work he has to put in, has finally paid off.”
Porché would be seated next to Proudfoot and co-director Kris Bowers on the first floor of the Dolby. The rest of the team, including Ismerai, would sit in the third mezzanine due to limited seating in the orchestra section, Proudfoot said.
When Porché’s grandmother and primary caretaker, Joy Biagas, heard her granddaughter would be going to the Oscars, she felt an equal mix of excitement and stress. She went straight to Amazon to find shoes for her granddaughter’s big night. After failing to find the right size online, grandmother and granddaughter headed to Nordstrom Rack at the Westfield Culver City, where they found white shoes with a lace bow on top.
For the dress, Biagas took a more hands-off approach. Porché went to a bridal shop with two representatives from Breakwater Studios and chose a poofy, blue ballerina-like dress.
“I didn’t want to interfere when she picked out her dress,” remaining workshop of its kind in America, 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 prize for the 2021 short “The Queen of Basketball”; that year, he and Bowers were nominated in the same category for co-directing “A Concerto Is a Conversation.”
Accepting the prize, Bowers said, “Music education isn’t just about creating incredible musicians — it’s about creating incredible human beings.”
“The Last Repair Shop” is available to watch on Disney+ and Hulu as well as on The Times’ YouTube channel and latimes.com, as part of the L.A. Times Short Docs series.
Biagas said. “I’m too moneyconscious. I would have gotten in the way.”
Breakwater Studios’ support for Porché goes beyond preparations for the Oscars. Proudfoot also funds her violin private lessons, Biagas said.
“At my old school when I didn’t have private lessons, there was one teacher for the whole orchestra and he didn’t know too much about violin because he plays flute,” Porché said. “Sometimes, he would just put on a video for us to watch.”
Proudfoot said a key theme in the documentary focuses on accessibility to the arts for students in low-income communities. The documentary’s team of 18 — which includes the production team, instrument technicians, Ismerai and Porché — will roll up to Hollywood’s largest stage in a yellow school bus.
“You don’t have to go in a nice limousine to represent your community and represent who you are,” Ismerai said. “I’m excited to showcase my childhood going in the bus ... and represent LAUSD.”