The Last Repair Shop | 2024 Oscar-Nominated Documentary Short

(orchestral fanfare) I love the violin. The hardest things in my life is probably my family's health. Like everybody's always getting sick back to back. They're like, "Oh, we have to go to the hospital for them and stuff." Like, "Wait, I'll hear you play in a minute, I just have to get these medicine for them." You know, I can understand, but it's like, it's like, "Okay, like I guess I'll play by myself." If I didn't have my violin from school, I would probably, I don't know what I would do. Don

't even jinx me with that. (orchestral music) (orchestral music continues) (orchestral music continues) - Let's see, there's four departments. There's brass repair, string instrument repair, woodwind instrument repair, and piano shop. With the strings, uh... Some of the writings are like doctor's writing, so. Violin, broken peg, please repair as needed. So in this case, old peg has to be removed, new peg fitted, strung, and instrument goes back to student. - When wood breaks, it breaks in a uniq

ue way. And if you leave a crack open, the instrument buzzes. It can be really frustrating. It's hard to find that last little buzz in the cello. (orchestral music) You find it and you're like, "Oh good, it's gone." It's really hard being a kid. Some of them come from a place of love and support, and others come from huge dysfunction. The emotional broken things and the mental broken things are more difficult. You can't glue that back together. That takes time and it takes care. (guitar tuning)

Well, by the time I was 27 or so, I'd begun the process of coming out. It was 1975. You have to remember that this was a different time. Being gay wasn't accepted. People were beaten in the street. People were bashed and killed. So from 13 years on, I tried my best to not be. I tried to grow out of it. I tried to, you know, evolve beyond it, and it wasn't happening and I thought I was broken. That buzz in the cello. It became be either miserable trying to be something I wasn't, or be authentic a

nd be shunned, ridiculed, beaten. Or just kill myself, you know? It was getting to a point of crisis for me. My mother and father were both musicians and my mom taught me music is like swimming. The rhythm is constantly in the moment. And if you stop, there's no music. Whatever you do, don't stop. Keep going. No matter how bad of a train wreck it is, just keep going. You know, don't quit, don't give up, persist, you know? And so I didn't decide, I realized I had to accept it. I wasn't broken, do

n't need fixing. And so I decided to embrace it. Met my husband, we became dads. And we've been a couple for almost 23 years now. And so I'm still here. Alive, free to be kind, be loving, be authentic. So it's not easy being a kid, but we try to make at least the playing of the instrument part as good as it can be. (cello playing) - If you told me five years ago that like, oh, I'd be playing sousaphone, I'd be like, "Damn, I think you're lying to me, bro." 'Cause that's not it. I don't know how

to play anything. 'Cause I could never have at that age an instrument that expensive. Like in my home, in my neighborhood, we could never afford it, in my opinion. I used to beg my mom and my dad, I used to beg 'em to buy me one and they're always telling me the same thing, Me decían, "o la tuba o tú," which means "either a tuba or you" in the house. And I'm just like, "Oh well, I guess that's not an option." But luckily, I had a sousaphone at home from school. (tuba playing) I was 13...13, 14.

It's emotional 'cause like when you think about like, right now, 18, fresh outta high school, going to college, barely starting life and I'm gonna find a way to somehow make music my career, my passion, my living. Without the tubas at school and the sousaphones at school, like you never know honestly. - For example, brass department, euphonium, leak, resolder as needed, give a sonic wash. This one needs tender little care. (orchestral music) - A lot of times I wonder what kind of little hands ho

ld the instrument before me. I have a big jar, I call it the treasure jar and it has all the stuff I have found inside the instruments. Batteries, marbles, candies, pencils, erasers. This little toy, it's tiny, about this big and it's all hairy. It's like, secret communication between that kid and myself. What kind of story that instrument can tell me if he can talk to me? My story, it was a big adventure. Big, scary adventure. I was born in Mexico in a town called Morelia. My mother used to say

to us, "You can do anything you want in life. You are smart, you are strong. Go fight for what you want." Since I was a little girl, I wanted the American Dream, so I decide I want go to United States. When you set your mind on doing something, you do it. We traveled all night. Seeing those buildings all light up, my jaw was dropped. So like, "Wow, that's even better in life than what I was imagining." I was a single mother with two kids, very small. My daughter was three and my son was six. Ha

ve to figure it out. I started working at music store in Thousand Oaks. The owner said, "Okay, I'm gonna give a chance for a week, one week." Vacuumed the cases and preparing the musical instruments for him to get 'em fixed. So after a week, he said, "You know what? I think we're gonna keep you a little longer." Worked in that store for seven years. My son, he said, "Mom, I would like to try clarinet." $20 a month, the rental. It was a lot for me. I was single mom, remember? And I couldn't affor

d it. We were so poor. Sometimes we didn't have food. Sometimes we didn't have nothing for Christmas. I came to this country thinking, "Yes, this is the American Dream." And when I didn't have food for my kids, I felt like this is not American Dream. Few years later, one of technicians, Mark Comeau, he called me. An opportunity opened. L.A.U.S.D. They were gonna hire two brass technicians. "You need to go there, you need to take the test." When I came to take the test, there were 12 men and myse

lf. I was scared. My heart, it was like it was gonna come out of my chest. I thought myself, I have no chance in there. But I remember my mother, "You can do anything you want in life. You are smart, you are strong. Go fight for what you want." Night before, with my kids, I talked to 'em and I said, "Look, I'm gonna take this test. If everything go okay, we are gonna have a totally different life." The test was the most difficult experience. Cleaning so many little parts. The pistons, they need

to go up and down. The casing and the piston have to lock inside with a little guide and they fit like a glove. Any little dent, any little scratch, even if it is dirty, it won't play. I did the test and I went home. I was sad and disappointed because I felt like I never have a chance. I think they're gonna do much better than me. I didn't even wanna wait for L.A.U.S.D. to give me the results because I was almost sure that I wasn't gonna get it, especially because it was only men working in the

shop. I just forgot all about it. I thought like, put that behind me and don't get excited or anything because it's not gonna happen. Yeah. And then, I get a phone call. You have no idea how it felt. I was screaming, jumping. When I saw my kids that night, it was like, "Yes, we did it. Yes." So, I start working here January 26th, 2004. They give me my bench. All these years I've been working here. Same bench, I never change. - Music changed my life. For sure, for sure it did. I started at the ag

e of nine. My school gave me my saxophone, they gave me a case. They gave me everything I needed. This is a beauty. I usually always was in the house, you know, playing around, a lot of energy, like throwing everything down and always messing up. The saxophone help me in a way be more disciplined 'cause music, okay, I have to be on time, I have to practice, I have to look good, I have to shower, I have to brush my teeth. It helped me focus more. When I'm feeling tense, when I'm feeling sad or an

gry, the saxophone (saxophone playing) calms me down. But the G sharp key always gets stuck. - With the woodwinds, we have a saxophone. Missing a screw, lower joint, left hand, pinky F key, so on and so forth. G sharp key completely fell off, complete overhaul. So in this case, we have to evaluate it. - Let's see, the wonderful woodwind department. They all got keys and screws and rods and springs and if those get bent or rusted, then the instrument leaks. It's kinda almost like a puzzle. We fin

d a leak, you fix it. You go to the next thing, that leaks, you fix it. You might have to take the instrument apart just to get that one pad just right. You do it, you do whatever it takes because for a young child that's interested in playing, that one instrument could change their whole life. The whole reason why I wanted to learn how to play music came from the old Frankenstein movie where Frankenstein was out in the woods and the whole township was after him, you know, with the shovels and e

verything and he was in the woods trying to run away. That always stuck with me because growing up, got picked on so much. I don't know what they thought really. I was kind of in my own world. Some people would say maybe a little off center. Yeah. Yeah. So when I saw that spot in the movie where the old blind gentleman lived out in the woods, he's sitting in his house by the fire and he's playing the violin, and Frankenstein hears it and he almost gets tears in his eyes from the sound and he fol

lows it. And of course the blind man hears somebody at the door. He says, "Come on in." And he fixes tea and all this stuff. And I'm going, "Wow, the bow is going across the strings and it made the monster cry and relax." That was such an impression on me. And then years go by and I was at a swap meet and I saw a violin sitting there that somebody was selling, you know, it just all came to me. It's like, "This is what I want to do. I wanna play that violin." I looked at it and they wanted $20 fo

r it. I think I only had $5. So I hitchhiked all the way back home. And my mom, I begged her. I said, "Can you front me $20 and could you please drive me back?" Went back there, ran down the aisle, and I'm looking, I can't find this violin anywhere. I was on the wrong aisle. Went around the other aisle and there it was, beautiful like lime green felt on the inside. And from that moment on, I had the fiddle bug and I didn't even stop to eat sometimes. I just wanted to play, play, and learn, and l

earn, and play, and learn. In high school, I took every music class I could. All the other classes were just complete torture. So my buddy in high school, he got a banjo and then we started playing bluegrass music, fiddle and the banjo, and our best friend Chuck, he played rock and roll guitar. Bam. We named ourselves after Bodie Ghost Town, the Bodie Mountain Express. So we came in the music store, we say we're a band, we're looking for a place to play, get some tips. "Oh you guys play? Hey, ge

t out your instruments and play somethin'." We had these silly hillbilly band routines, a bunch of like shakers and spoons, played some tunes, a little show. The banjo player, you know, did the funny thing with his eyes. And he grabs the phone, dials up, starts talking on the phone, puts the phone down. Next thing we know this Cadillac pulls up in front of the store and out comes this guy, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager. And of course Colonel Parker is friends with Liberace, Frank S

inatra. Next thing you know, we're gonna go to Frank's house and we're gonna play a little concert for him. We're gonna go to Liberace's house and play a little concert. Snap like that. It was 1975, New Year's Eve, Pontiac Dome Stadium. Colonel put us on the Elvis show. - We're gonna feature Mr. Duane Michaels on this one. It was 73,000 people and we were the first ones on stage. We're all wearing overalls and everybody waiting to see Elvis, looking like, "Who are these hillbillies?" But this is

the highest grossing one night show that Elvis put on. A few years after that, they hired us to play at Knott's Berry Farm. And so we played there. That's how I met my wife. She's saw me playing at Knott's Berry Farm, thought I was the greatest thing ever because I was up there playing the fiddle. And then next thing you know, Disneyland sent a talent scout and just hired us on the spot. The only thing is we need you in Florida, in Disney World. Sure. Colonel, we had a close relationship. Yeah,

Colonel Parker was my son's godfather. Sounds like a made up story, but I mean, it really isn't. That $20 fiddle I found at a swap meet has taken me all over the world. That $20 fiddle has taken me everywhere. - Thank you very much. By the way, we're the Bodie Mountain Express. And that brings us to where I'm at now, getting these instruments to play easily for a wonderful purpose. The fact that the kids have a chance to play instruments if they can't afford it. That one instrument could change

their whole life. In a way, you know, you can feel like, you know, you're fixing an instrument for the future Grammy winner if you want to kind of dream a little bit, you know? - When I was three years old, my dad taught me how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the piano. I actually vividly remember that. I've been playing the piano for like nine years now. You know, I just have a connection with it, you know? I'm getting emotional. I've just been playing for a while, playing for a lon

g time. Mental health is something that's like very hard to manage sometimes, especially with like everything that's going on in your life like school, and thinking of what you want to be, it's very stressful sometimes. I guess I'm just scared of like failure, you know? Like I'm scared like I won't like find a purpose in life. But once I go on stage, all that tension goes away. When you play on stage, you have like this overwhelming presence, and like, you know, the audience is like somewhat lik

e attracted to it, you know? Everyone's just watching you and you feel a certain power. (piano playing) Something like that. - Pianos, let's see if we find anything interesting here. As supervisor, I have to make sure that all the instruments are repaired in a timely manner, that shop is all up to the safety and all the employees are happy because we are a family here. I'm a supervisor here, but I started as a piano technician. I always remember the first time I saw the piano. I was a little Arm

enian boy living in Baku City, a former Soviet Union Republic of Azerbaijan. The piano tuner would come in the middle of our music class and take the piano apart and he would mute every string and then go to another one and go move to another one and another one, and I was sitting at the first row. I'm thinking, "God, so many strings, and he had to do every single one. So many parts, how does he do that? Wow." Late 60s, early 70s, my brother, he's 10 years older than me. He bought a guitar and h

e told me not to touch it. One day, he was at the college, so I took the guitar and he comes home, "Who touched my guitar? I told you not to touch it." I said, "Well, I just played a little bit." He says, "Oh, you mean you play the guitar?" I go like, "Yeah." My brother realized that I wasn't just touching the guitar, I was actually trying to play. And he gave me the guitar. I had the guitar all the way until the day I moved to United States. My parents couldn't imagine that something bad could

happen because God, we had friends, we had neighbors that we lived for all these years side by side, and so nobody could think that a war would start. It was 1987, '86 or '87, the city of Baku. They start kicking all the Armenians out. Day by day, it was becoming difficult. We would gather together outside of our buildings on the streets and we would make bonfires and just guard our homes all night. But day by day, there was less and less and less people with us because people are moving out. Th

ey afraid to stay. My dad was optimistic because, "Steve, I'm not moving anywhere. I never harmed anybody, never did anything bad to anybody. We live in Soviet Union, our government will never let anything like that happen." Well, he was a very wise man but, what a mistake that he did, that he didn't listen. He was at work and somebody just came from behind and killed him. I don't know. Sorry. Samson. That's my son's name. I was 20 years old. I had to take my mom and get out of there. So we just

pretty much locked the doors, we left everything, family albums, and of course my brother's gift, the guitar. It wasn't easy even to get to airport because you still look like Armenian, and on the street, people can stop you and harm you. So thanks to my friends, Azerbaijani friends, they took us to the airport and they basically created a human corridor in airport so we can go through it. (airplane engine roaring) When we arrived in the United States, they found a sponsor, Ken and Veronica. I

maybe knew how to say hello. I had small Russian-English dictionary, so if I wanna say something, I would just go find words and show it to Ken. And when I asked him what he does for job, he tried to tell me through dictionary, but he couldn't find the right words. But he had this picture, beautiful painting on his wall above his piano. The artist is Norman Rockwell. So he pointed at that picture, and I remembered me watching the piano tuner at the school in the classroom. Oh God, is it possible

that he tunes pianos? And then of course, ding, ding, ding, "You tune?" You know? He's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." And we start laughing and he says, "Would you like to help me around the piano shop?" I was delivering pizzas, I was shoveling snow, moving furniture, and doing anything. And I said, "Sure, absolutely." "You're starting tomorrow, $4.25 an hour.' I said, "Yes." Then of course, Ken would send me to Yamaha schools, to Baldwin schools, to Steinway school. After what happened in the past,

I lost that urge to follow the music, to be in the music, to stay with the music, but life brought me back to it. Ended up being a piano turner. I mean, see how life is. I love the violin. (sentimental music) - [Dana] I think a lot of people see a broken thing and they just think it's broken. It could be anything. Maybe it's public schools- - [Steve] Or maybe it's the United States or any other part of the world. - [Duane] Maybe it's just a $20 fiddle found at a swap meet. - [Dana] But when we

see a broken thing, we think, "Oh, with a little something here, a little something there, we can fix the part that's broken and make things whole again." - [Paty] It's difficult work- - [Steve] But no matter what- You do whatever it takes because- It is one of the best things that humans do. That's why this is not just a musical instrument repair shop. When an instrument breaks, there's a student without an instrument. No, no, no, not in our city. - [Duane] We know it could change their whole l

ife. Even if they don't know me, I'm part of that. (orchestral music)