Instruments of a Beating Heart

Instruments of a Beating Heart is a 2024 Japanese documentary short film directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki. Edited down from Yamazaki's 2023 feature The Making of a Japanese, the film documents the challenge presented to the first graders in a Tokyo public elementary school of performing "Ode to Joy" at the ceremony for the new incoming first graders, as their assignment for the final semester. Instruments of a Beating Heart had its world premiere on June 14, 2024, in the Shorts Program: One-of-a-Kind of DC/DOX Film Festival 2024. It won Best Short Documentary at the 40th IDA Documentary Awards and was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards.