Videos: The Last Repair Shop, Tarta Relena, and Examined Life

[sonia]

A friend sent me a link to this movie even knowing that I don't usually watch things, and I started watching it knowing that 40 minutes is longer than I'm usually willing to sit through videos. I watched the entire thing, crying the whole time at the loving way these people go about their work. The Last Repair Shop.

Probably everyone else has already seen it since it won the Oscar for best documentary short for the 2024 Academy Awards, but just in case you haven't, it is well worth 40 minutes of your life and a lot of tears at the sheer kindness of the people in it.

My cousin sent me a link to Tarta Relena: Tiny Desk x globalFEST 2024 right when I was busy putting a complicated score into MuseScore and didn't have time to stop and listen to anything - but these two women singing together in harmony in several languages is exactly my kind of music and I watched the whole 20 minutes.

I also recently watched all 14 minutes of Examined Life - Judith Butler talks with Sunaura Taylor, as recommended by jesse_the_k. I watched it for their discussion of the social model of disability (with bonus thrifting), for glimpses of San Francisco, and for celebrating a disabled person belonging out for a walk and buying a sweater. I didn't know San Francisco is (one of) the most accessible cities in the world. I moved here as a young adult and took the curb cuts, etc. as the right and proper way for a city to be.

Additional links in comments, thanks jesse_the_k!
Smithsonian article on the history of activism for curb cuts by disabled folks by Julie Peterson.

Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot on Their Short Documentary ‘The Last Repair Shop’ by Valentina Valentini

Comments

Thanks for more things to watch!

[jesse_the_k]

Curb cuts do make a lot of sense--I've encountered folks who didn't know that wheelchair users advocated for them.

I heard exaggerated stories of the early independent living movement in Berkeley creating curb cuts with sledgehammers (broken concrete wouldn't by very navigable), but happily the Smithsonian now documents the many curb cut activists along the way.

Re: Thanks for more things to watch!

[sonia]

That’s a great article, thanks! It sounds like there were a few instances of sledge-hammering to make a point, and some asphalt-laying which makes more sense.

Expert Media Advice

[jesse_the_k]

We watched The Last Repair shop and wept. WHAT A GREAT FILM!

Why did it make us all weep? Thoughts from co-director Kris Bowers (who played pianos maintained by Steve Bagmanyan)

“It’s just really wild to think that this place that I went to every day, that felt crucial for me in terms of my mental and emotional stability, was directly due to this repair shop and to Steve and people like him,” says Bowers, explaining how the auditoriums and music classrooms in his schools gave him a safe space when he felt othered or awkward. “The music room became a space for me to work through emotions and rebuild my own confidence. And it also became this bridge for me to be able to express myself to some of these kids [whom I wasn’t on equal footing with on a cultural level]. I didn’t know how important the repair shop was to that lifeline for me.”

https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/a45978092/kris-bowers-ben-proudfoot-short-documentary-the-last-repair-shop/

Re: Expert Media Advice

[sonia]

Thanks for the link! I was trying to put into words why the tears (still, when I think about the film!), and your pull quote has the key word I came up with - safety. Those four adults found safety in the repair shop, and in turn they do their work with love and care so that LA children can find their own safe spaces.

And also longing. My parents asked me at one point if I wanted to join the school band, but I wordlessly understood that they didn't want me to and that there would be no support for the risks and difficulties of learning to play an instrument, so I said no. It's one of my big regrets/losses that I didn't get to learn then, although I've made up for it as best I can as an adult.

I love the mix of cultures in the film too. Two of the craftspeople were immigrants, and they chose to highlight a great mix of diverse kids. Such a huge YES PLEASE to all of it.