ODE TO JOY

93-year-old Naomi Friedman and her elderly friends at Brookdale Galleria in Houston have found an unusual way to fill the long days of their retirement. Banding together to form the Kazoo Ensemble, they attempt to delight children in their community with their seriously performed, awkward sounding music. Some graduate beyond the ten cent kazoo and attempt elegance in humming, but most members join to give their fleeting days purpose, bringing joy to themselves and those around them. Despite having no obligations, and an encroaching sense of irrelevance, these seniors refuse to quietly fade away.

Director’s Bio
Michael Koshkin is a cinematographer and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. His first film as director, Ode to Joy, won second place in the Hammer to Nail Short Film Contest and is set for multiple screenings at film festivals in 2018.

He grew up in Houston, Texas and studied writing at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac Institute of Disembodied Poetics.

Plays in

MATINEE TWO

The Nitehawk Shorts Festival’s MATINEE TWO screening includes eight films that imbue life and death as explored in stories about finite mortality, complex relationships, and exceeding expectations in an oppressive world.