SUBJECTS — U.S. 1991 to Current; Music; World: Armenia;
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Work/Career, GBLTQ, Human Rights, Taking Care of Yourself; Male Role Model; Female Role Model;
MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility, Caring.
2023, 39 Minutes, Available above, on Youtube, Disney+ and Hulu.
TWM offers the following worksheets to keep students’ minds on the movie and direct them to the lessons that can be learned from the film.
Teachers can modify the movie worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project and Movies as Literature Homework Project..
This Academy Award winning short subject is heartwarming, inspirational, and beautifully filmed. It tells the stories of eight people: four young students who have found inspiration in learning to play musical instruments provided by their schools, and four adults who work at one of the last repair shops for musical instruments maintained by a U.S. public school district. As one critic put it, the film “celebrates how transformative it can be to put the right tools in kids’ hands.”
Awards: Academy Award for Best Short Documentary; Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for best short;
Cast: Dana Atkinson, Paty Moreno, Duane Michael, Steve Bagmanyan;
Director: Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers.
The story of each person featured in the film contains valuable life lessons. The movie shows craftspersons working with their hands to fix things that make a difference in the lives of others. Watching the film may inspire young students to pick up an instrument and take music lessons or to redouble their efforts to master an instrument they are already playing. This movie shows an example of a government program that works a triple win:
None. (However, students who watch this film may request assistance from teachers in finding an instrument and starting music lessons.)
Watch the movie with your children and discuss one or two of its life-lessons. The film is an excellent way to motivate your children to start playing an instrument or to apply themselves to their music lessons.
(There is also a musical summation performed by alumni of the LAUSD music program.)
[The Young Violinist:] “I love the violin” … [Dana Strings:] 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 Piano:] Or, maybe it’s the United States or any other part of the world. [Duane Woodwinds:] Maybe, it’s just a $20 fiddle found at a swap meet. [Dana Strings:] 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 Brass:] It’s difficult work. [Steve Piano:] But no matter what, you do whatever it takes because [Dana Strings] fixing stuff is one of the best things that humans can do. [Steve Piano:] That’s why this is not just a musical instrument repair shop. When the instrument breaks, there’s a student without an instrument. No, no, no, not in our city.” [Duane Woodwinds] We know it could change their whole life. [Paty Brass] Even if they don’t know me, I’m part of that. [34:20 – 36:30]
The Official Trailer consists of the summation and can be easily shown to classes. Click here.
Co-Director Kris Bowers went to LAUSD schools and grew up playing on pianos tuned and repaired by Steve Bagmanyan (“Steve Pianos”). Bowers is a working Hollywood composer with credits for movies such as Origin,Green Book, Bob Marley: One Love, and The Color Purple (2023)
A transcript of Dana String’s story is set out below. It is nothing less than profound. It was unscripted but even the best script writer in Hollywood could not have done better. The score that accompanies Dana’s story is excellent and it is best simply played to the class at 3:20 – 7:49.
“When the wood breaks, it breaks in a unique 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. 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.
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 being either miserable, trying to be something I wasn’t, or be authentic and be shunned, ridiculed, beaten or just kill myself. You know, it was — 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. And don’t quit. Don’t give up. Persist! You know. And so, … I realized I had to accept it. I wasn’t broken. No need for 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.”
There is no need to introduce the film. Just have the class watch it.
After the movie, define the term “pogrom” for the class. A pogrom is organized massacre of an ethnic or racial group. The term was first used to describe attacks on Jewish communities in the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is now used to describe any riot or massacre of a particular group of people. An example is the Ajerbaijani program against ethnic Armenians in Baku, 1985 – 1990.
1. An important analogy in this film is between people and musical instruments. How are they alike?
Suggested Response:
Musical instruments can be repaired and so can the lives of people. Dana Strings was almost broken by homophobia, but he lived to repair his life. Steve Piano’s family was forced to flee from their home by a pogrom but he rebuilt his life. Paty Brass came to the U.S. with nothing but built a life for herself.
2. Ask the class for volunteers to describe a life lesson that they took away from this film in the form of a thesis statement. Write the lesson on a display board or screen so that the entire class can see it. Start a discussion of the life lesson. Then ask for another life lesson and so on until you think most of the life lessons of the film have been brought out.]
Suggested Response:
There is no one correct response. Any heartfelt response should be respected. See A Summary of Some Life Lessons in this Film;
Here are a few other ways of describing life lessons in the movie:
3. Ask the class for volunteers to describe a line in the film that is meaningful to them. Ask who said it and why is it meaningful. [Write the line on a display board or screen so that the entire class can see it. Solicit class discussion of the concept in the line. Then ask for another meaningful line and so on until you have exhausted the students’ interest in describing lines of the film.]
Suggested Response:
There is no one correct response. Any reasoned response should be respected. Here are some possibilities for answers to the first part of the question. There are other great lines:
There is no one answer to the third part of the question. Any heartfelt answer will do.
See also Discussion questions and Assignments for Use with Any Documentary
1. What does this film have to say about work?
Suggested Response:
People who perform work that is a meaningful service to others are fulfilled in their work lives.
2. Each of the repair persons in the film are role models in certain ways. What makes them role models?
Suggested Response:
Dana Strings: kept trying to live, found his authentic self and became a loving adult. Paty Brass: followed her dream, persevered through hardship to happiness, and became a contributing member of society; Duane Woodwinds: took advantage of an opportunity that no one else saw; Steve Pianos: survived a pogrom and went on to live have a family and a fulfilling career.
1. What does this film tell us about toleration of people with a different sexual orientation?
Suggested Response:
People who are different are still people and should be treated just like we would want to be treated. They should be allowed to live their lives as they see fit and fulfill their potential.
1. Pick a life lesson from the film. Put it into the form of a thesis statement and write an essay describing why it is a beneficial life-lesson.
2. Write a review of the film.
3. Write an essay responding to any of the discussion questions.
4. Listen to the music in the story of Dana Strings. Write out the monologue and as to each sentence, describe what the music is doing and how it compliments the words spoken during the scene. [Allow students to select other sections of the film if they wish.]
5. Assign this task to students: Some of the people shown in the film refer to music as therapy for them. Also, Kris Bowers, one of the co-directors, who grew up playing piano in the LA schools said that playing piano was therapy for him while he was growing up. Is there anything in your life that calms you down, helps you meet life’s challenges, or gets you through the day? It could be music, it could be a relationship with a parent, a sibling, or someone else. Write an essay about what you use for self-therapy?
6. Assign this task to students: Write a report describing what occurred in the Baku Pogrom 1985 -1900.
See also Discussion Questions and Assignments for Use With Any Documentary
Multimedia: Anchor Standard #7 for Reading (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). (The three Anchor Standards read: “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media, including visually and quantitatively as well as in words.”) CCSS pp. 35 & 60. See also Anchor Standard # 2 for ELA Speaking and Listening, CCSS pg. 48.
Reading: Anchor Standards #s 1, 2, 7 and 8 for Reading and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 35 & 60.
Writing: Anchor Standards #s 1 – 5 and 7- 10 for Writing and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 41 & 63.
Speaking and Listening: Anchor Standards #s 1 – 3 (for ELA classes). CCSS pg. 48.
Not all assignments reach all Anchor Standards. Teachers are encouraged to review the specific standards to make sure that over the term all standards are met.
Coming soon.
This is Learning Guide was written by James Frieden. This Guide was written on April 9, 2024.
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