How ‘Black Box Diaries’ Director Shiori Ito Set Out to Change How Japanese Society Deals With Sexual Assault
30.04.2024 - 18:39
/ variety.com
Addie Morfoot Contributor Shiori Ito’s feature documentary “Black Box Diaries” about the investigation of the director’s own sexual assault, earned a standing ovation following its Hot Docs Canadian premiere on Monday. The 103-minute film tracks Ito’s arduous, five-year struggle to bring to justice renowned TV reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi, who sexually assaulted her. In 2015, Ito – then a 26-year-old intern at Thomson Reuters – went out for a drink with Yamaguchi, only to become intoxicated and taken against her will to his hotel room.
In Japan, according to the film, only 4% of victims of rape report their cases to police. But Ito “felt a strong desire for the truth to be known and to change Japanese society in order to prevent what happened to me from happening to more women.” In 2017, Ito’s memoir about the rape, titled “Black Box,” was published and went on to win the Free Press Association of Japan Award for Best Journalism in 2018. She followed that with “Black Box Diaries,” her feature documentary debut.
The film combines secret investigative recordings, vérité footage and emotional first-person video to tell her story, which would become a landmark case in Japan. “With only a vague idea of its future use, the material for this film began with a need to protect myself,” Ito said. “In the previous year, after my case was suppressed by various levels of power in the Japanese system, I had secretly recorded conversations with the police and others.
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