From a tiny island at the bottom of the world, piano tuner Martin Tucker is on a mission to save the musical instrument and a way of life.
When pianos die, the piano tuner will follow, but Martin refuses to give up. To rescue instruments and himself from redundancy, he transforms into
a rough travelling piano tuner. From Tasmania to the Northern Territory, Martin traverses the harsh Australian environment, one that is challenging for humans and even more
so for pianos. Martin will create his own musical art of survival.
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The film follows Tasmanian Martin over an eight-year period as he carries out his
full-time job as ‘the piano doctor’ and navigates a professional existential crisis. Once upon a time, Australia was home to the largest number of pianos in the world, but now acoustic instruments are falling out of fashion, replaced by electric keyboards, modern forms of entertainment and the permanent shortage of time to practice. To prevent pianos from ending up on the street or the tip, Martin creates the piano orphanage -
a space for unwanted pianos, where they can safely wait for better times to come.
Martin and his friend, piano removalist Tony Gamble, collect old pianos and pianolas in
a desperate attempt to save them from destruction. The piano orphanage in Tony's garage grows out of control, with no idea what to do next. Pianos spill into Martin's house, and Tony's donkey farm outside Hobart.
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The film’s characters are piano people who live in a world that is rapidly changing or vanishing. The old, heavy instrument, which needs space, maintenance, tuning, and the discipline of practising, doesn't fit into modern life, where a lack of financial certainty pushes people to live light and mobile. There is also an influx of electric keyboards that require no tuning.
Martin comes up with the idea of migrating as birds do, searching for new habitats.
To expand his workspace, he will go as far as the Australian continent allows. He becomes a nomadic piano tuner and embarks on an odyssey from Tasmania to the Northern Territory, chasing the cycle of life of both pianos and people.
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When travelling, he goes to the heart of the Australian outback, where pianos are covered in layers of dust, often inhabited by lizards, mice and cockroaches. In the North Territory, the weather changes from the dry season, which makes pianos sound tinny,
to the wet season, when they can just stop working. Martin borrows from Peter to pay Paul, improvising with piano parts and tools, often making them as they are not available on Bunnings shelves. He will sleep rough in a makeshift bed or in a swag on the back
of his Ute. He would do anything to reach out to new clients and pianos, and as a result, he goes where other piano tuners won’t.
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There is a bonus in Darwin, with so many Asian immigrants attracted to job opportunities and proximity to Asia. These immigrants, even if not wealthy, would save up to buy brand-new shiny pianos. They are ambitious for their children and determined that they will become pianists; they will make them practice hard.
The documentary is a window into the lives of a diverse group of piano lovers. Rich and poor, old and young, happy or depressed, Anglo-Saxon, Asian or Indigenous - they all love pianos. The film records a unique and rich cultural history within Australia.
What is behind Martin’s determination? Is it a fear of unemployment and irrelevance,
or is it a statement that the language of music can bridge cultural differences? In the world of AI content, The Piano Tuner story takes us to real people to test our most precious human-to-human connection, enhanced by music.
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This observational-style film portrays a vanishing community, that of Australian piano people. Those who play acoustic pianos very well or badly, and those who own them
for sentimental or status reasons.
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