Black Box Diaries

Journalist Shiori Itō directs this documentary about her own experience with sexual assault and the legal battle that followed, which made her the face of the Japanese MeToo movement.

In 2015 the prominent TV journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi brings the intoxicated Shiori Itō to his hotel room. Two years later, she publicly accuses him of raping her, and the long process of getting him convicted of the crime begins. At this point, Japanese legislation regarding rape had not been updated for more than a century. Few choose to report it, and those who do risk harassment and smear campaigns.

Black Box Diaries is simultaneously an intimately personal tale of surviving assault and a furious reckoning with the ways Japanese law and attitudes towards sexual abuse hurt those already affected by it.

«As much as a personal chronicle, Black Box Diaries indicts systems that allow the influential to act with impunity. When institutions meant to protect instead ignore abuse, Ito’s DIY investigation serves as a manual for sidestepping gatekeepers of truth. Her story bridges the personal and political, proving the only choice when fighting is to move forward — through hidden cameras if needed.»

– Valerie Complex, Deadline –

Jenny Lund

Director

Shiori Itō (b. 1989) is a Japanese journalist, director and activist. In 2017 her memoir Black Box was published, which has since been translated into ten languages. Black Box Diaries is her first feature documentary and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.