NOTE: RSVP recommended, but not required. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The first 40 visitors to present their TAP cards to the #MetroArtLA info table will receive a free copy of our book, Los Angeles Through the Eyes of Artists.

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Join Metro Art Presents on September 7, 2024, from 7-10 pm for a free screening of The Last Repair Shop including a conversation and live musical performance. Watch the Academy Award®-winning documentary short about L.A.’s craftspeople who keep the city’s music alive. 

Once commonplace in the United States, today Los Angeles is by far the largest and one of the last American cities to provide free and freely repaired musical instruments to its public schoolchildren, a continuous service since 1959. 

From Academy Award®-winning directing duo Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot, The Last Repair Shop grants an all access pass to the nondescript downtown warehouse where a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople keep over 80,000 student instruments in good repair.

Witness the profound life stories of four staff master craftspeople as well as the students whose lives have been transformed by their instrument. In the repair people’s stories, music has been the continuous thread that has mended their hearts and brought them to where they are now — fixing broken instruments to get them back into the longing hands of Los Angeles’ public school youth.

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KRIS BOWERS is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and an award-winning composer. His most recent film, The Last Repair Shop, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film and won the award for short documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. Bowers co-directed the Searchlight Pictures and L.A. Times Studio-backed film alongside Ben Proudfoot, which originally premiered at Telluride in 2023 and spotlights some of the individuals working at a repair shop in Los Angeles, the last American city to provide freely repaired instruments to its public school students. 

In 2020, Bowers co-directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary short film, A Concerto is a Conversation with Proudfoot. The film, a New York Times Op-Doc, was executive produced by Ava DuVernay and premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. He also produced, scored and stars in the 2023 documentary, ANTHEM with director Pete Nicks, which follows Bowers and Grammy-winning music producer DJ Dahi as they take a musical journey traveling across America in a bold experiment to reimagine America’s National Anthem.

In addition to his filmmaking, Bowers is known for his thought-provoking playing style, creating genre-defying film compositions that pay homage to his classical and jazz roots. Bowers has composed acclaimed music for film, television, documentary and video games and has collaborated with musicians and artists across genres, including Kobe Bryant, Mahershala Ali, Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes.

Bowers has multiple projects in development through Et Al Studios Productions, a production company himself and his wife Briana Henry founded.

An Academy Award®-winning short documentary director and entrepreneur, BEN PROUDFOOT is the creative force behind Breakwater Studios. The studio’s work has been recognized by the Academy Awards®, The Emmys, The Peabody Awards, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, The James Beard Awards, the Sundance Film Festival, Telluride, and the Tribeca Film Festival among others. 

Proudfoot was named one of Forbes “30 Under 30” for his leadership and innovation in the brand-funded documentary space. He hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Proudfoot is an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician and has performed at The Magic Castle in Los Angeles.