{"id":24575,"date":"2024-03-24T16:09:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T20:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24575"},"modified":"2024-03-24T16:12:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T20:12:09","slug":"proudfoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2024\/03\/24\/proudfoot\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Ben Proudfoot Discusses Technique Behind Oscar-Winning \u2018Last Repair Shop\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The striking intimacy in the film \u201cThe Last Repair Shop,\u201d which won the 2024 Academy Award for best documentary, begins with the Interrotron. Developed by Cambridge documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, the device uses the mirror system of Teleprompters to project live video of the interviewer in front of the recording camera, so the interviewee seemingly looks into the eyes of the interviewer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen you watch the movie they\u2019re looking at you,\u201d says Ben Proudfoot, who directed the documentary with Kris Bowers. \u201c\u2026I\u2019m trying to recreate the look, feel and sound of an intimate person-to-person conversation. \u2026 It brings a level of immediate emotional connection with the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s part of what gives such an emotional charge to \u201cThe Last Repair Shop,\u201d which looks behind the scenes at the instrument repair shop for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which keeps more than 80,000 musical instruments working for kids in the city\u2019s public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xttrkgKXtZ4?si=hYhnViKyM3fAuh81\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The film began as a collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, as funding partner, to document music stories in Los Angeles. When a member of the studio team turned up articles about the city\u2019s instrument repair shop, Proudfoot recalls thinking, \u201cI can\u2019t believe that there\u2019s still a shop that still exists.\u201d That feeling was followed by \u201ca pang of sadness that it\u2019s one of the last of a dying breed of repair shops, but I was also proud that LA had it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How is the documentary team able to so consistently and movingly draw people out? Proudfoot says he takes the time to get people to tell their whole life stories. \u201cIt\u2019s really starting from the very, very beginning. \u2026 And being a good listener and a good audience over many hours.\u201d Their method imbues the film with feeling, a feeling \u201cof extreme intimacy of human connection that we\u2019re all desperate to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn these films because I\u2019ve not done any pre-interview, the discovery and the revelation is actually happening on the screen,\u201d Proudfoot says. \u201cYou\u2019re watching the moment when they make the connection between this childhood memory\u201d and what happened in the rest of their lives. \u201cIt embeds the film with love, with the human experience. It embeds the film with something that will never be recreated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Related:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2024\/03\/23\/last-repair-shop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Oscar-Winning Documentary \u2018Last Repair Shop\u2019: Repairing Instruments To Make People Whole Again<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\">sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>&nbsp;so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2024 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1170\" height=\"490\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_12w.jpg\" alt=\"From \u201cThe Last Repair Shop.&quot; (Courtesy of Breakwater Studios)\" class=\"wp-image-24583\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_12w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_12w-768x322.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_12w-370x155.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From \u201cThe Last Repair Shop.&#8221; (Courtesy of Breakwater Studios)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1170\" height=\"490\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_16w.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_16w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_16w-768x322.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/THE-LAST-REPAIR-SHOP_STILL_16w-370x155.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From \u201cThe Last Repair Shop.&#8221; (Courtesy of Breakwater Studios)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The striking intimacy in the film \u201cThe Last Repair Shop,\u201d which won the 2024 Academy Award for best documentary, begins with the Interrotron. Developed by Cambridge documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, the device uses the mirror system of Teleprompters to project live video of the interviewer in front of the recording camera, so the interviewee seemingly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24575"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24590,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24575\/revisions\/24590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}