LA schools free music repair program gets spotlight in new documentary

In a warehouse in Los Angeles, a small repair shop brings unquantifiable generational joy.

A team repairs L.A. Unified School District's musical instruments, giving millions access to music for free.

The service is now the subject of a documentary titled "The Last Repair" by Grammy nominated co-director Kris Bowers and Academy Award nominee co-director Ben Proudfoot.

The directors spoke with ABC News Live about the project.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I just want to start right off with the idea of L.A. Unified having this remarkable program to repair these instruments for free. How did this idea come about to tell this story?

KRIS BOWERS Yeah, well, one of our producers, Jeremy Lambert, actually sent Ben an article about the repair shop. And he was just so surprised, you know, being in L.A. and not knowing that story, to try to see if there if we could have access to this amazing environment. And for me, when he told me about it being from L.A. and going to LAUSD schools and music being such a huge part of my life, I also immediately was so excited about this magical place I didn't know existed.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And yeah, you say you grew up in the L.A. Unified School District. What was that like?

BOWERS I mean, for me, music was such a huge part of my life as a kid. I started playing piano when I was four and in elementary school and middle school. That was really my way of interfacing with the public. I was always introverted. I didn't really feel comfortable processing my emotions verbally or outwardly. And so piano immediately became this way for me to process how I felt, how for me to deal with any difficult emotions. And so having access to that in music classes or just, you know, in the auditorium or any of that was really integral to my growing up.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And Ben, I know this isn't the first time that you all have worked together, but in this particular case, what was it like meeting the people who are impacted and talking to them about how this is maybe life changing for them?

BEN PROUDFOOT: Yeah, it's always a joy to show up with a big camera crew into somebody's life. You know, this experience and with this spirit of saying, it's finally show time to give you the respect and honor that we think you deserve. And the film just released yesterday on YouTube. And already we're getting all kinds of texts from the for repair people in the movie. They're not used to getting a lot of attention and love. And it just it makes me emotional to think about, you know, because it's so many people, especially in education, who just don't get thanked, who work for decades and never get thanked.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Why is it so important? You know, people don't I don't think really often see these kinds of stories to realize the value of actually giving to the arts.

PROUDFOOT: Yeah, I don't know exactly why it is. You know, I think, you know, it's like, it's like "Dead Poets Society," right? Like, these are the things that we live for, you know? And but I think I think what the movie tries to get at is how having access to a musical instrument, you know, no matter what your background is or whether you can afford it or not, can transform your life. You can either, become an amazing professional musician like Kris, or maybe that gives you the confidence to go on and do something else. But I believe and we both believe that it's something that we must invest in, and that's what the last repair shop is all about. And you hear from the kids, too, when they have their moment in the film.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And talking about the moment, there is a part toward the end where you see the young kids playing the score with the professionals. Kind of give us a sense of the excitement and what it was like for the kids from their perspective.

BOWERS: Oh, it was really thrilling, You know, for them to record at Warner Brothers and be sitting next to these people that have played on so many scores and so many recordings that they probably have heard and grew to grown up listening to.

And for us, we talked about from very early on this idea of having this multi-generational orchestra of musicians that have all been touched by this repair shop. And so having kids from, you know, the age of 7 to these veterans that are nearly 70 that, you know, went to LAUSD schools, playing together, I think was so amazing to see all come together and for people to not even recognize or know that somebody that they've known for a long time actually also went to an LAUSD school and have that in common.

But for the kids especially, I think just having that experience, I really hope, helps them to feel even more confident moving forward as musicians.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I know you guys both have a very busy schedules. Any upcoming projects that you want to share with us?

BOWERS: Yeah. For me, on the scoring side, as a composer, I worked on Ava DuVernay's "Origin," which comes out in December, and also "The Color Purple," which comes out around Christmas.