The 50th Annual Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) wrapped up on Sunday and announced the winners of the 2024 Golden Space Needle Audience and Juried Competition Awards.
The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a Bipoc director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to Siff.
Siff holds two categories of competition: juried and audience based. Juried competitions include five feature subcategories including the Official Competition, New American Cinema Competition, New Directors Competition, Ibero-American Competition and Documentary Competition. Short film categories include live action, animation and documentary.
In addition, over 32,000 ballots were submitted for the Golden Space Needle Awards (Gsna). Films judged through the GSNAs are selected by audience members through post-screening ballots. The categories include best film,...
The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a Bipoc director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to Siff.
Siff holds two categories of competition: juried and audience based. Juried competitions include five feature subcategories including the Official Competition, New American Cinema Competition, New Directors Competition, Ibero-American Competition and Documentary Competition. Short film categories include live action, animation and documentary.
In addition, over 32,000 ballots were submitted for the Golden Space Needle Awards (Gsna). Films judged through the GSNAs are selected by audience members through post-screening ballots. The categories include best film,...
- 5/19/2024
- by Lexi Carson
- Variety Film + TV
London-based documentary specialist Dogwoof has landed a raft of international sales for Shiori Ito’s Sundance premiere Black Box Diaries.
The documentary feature has been picked up by Art House Films (France), Trigon (Switzerland), Periscoop (Benelux), NonStop (Scandinavia & Baltics), Anticipate Pictures (Singapore), Filmin (Spain), Sherry Media (Canada) and Edko (Hong Kong).
Star Sands, one of the film’s co-producers and financiers, will release the film theatrically in Japan, while Dogwoof will distribute in the UK and Ireland this autumn.
As previously announced, MTV Documentary Films has acquired the film for US distribution.
Black Box Diaries follows the director’s investigation...
The documentary feature has been picked up by Art House Films (France), Trigon (Switzerland), Periscoop (Benelux), NonStop (Scandinavia & Baltics), Anticipate Pictures (Singapore), Filmin (Spain), Sherry Media (Canada) and Edko (Hong Kong).
Star Sands, one of the film’s co-producers and financiers, will release the film theatrically in Japan, while Dogwoof will distribute in the UK and Ireland this autumn.
As previously announced, MTV Documentary Films has acquired the film for US distribution.
Black Box Diaries follows the director’s investigation...
- 5/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
MTV Documentary Films has acquired U.S. rights to Shiori Ito’s “Black Box Diaries.”
The docu, about the investigation of the director’s own alleged sexual assault, debuted in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and has been an audience favorite at this year’s Cph:dox, South by Southwest and Hot Docs film festivals.
MTV will theatrically release “Black Box Diaries” this fall, beginning in October at New York’s Film Forum. The film will be qualified for awards consideration before streaming on Paramount+ for subscribers with the Showtime plan later this year. Last year, the division released two Oscar nominated docs — Maite Alberdi’s feature length “The Eternal Memory” and Sheila Nevin’s short titled “The ABCs of Book Banning.”
Ito’s 103-minute film tracks her arduous, five-year struggle to bring to justice renowned TV reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi for allegedly sexually assaulting her in...
The docu, about the investigation of the director’s own alleged sexual assault, debuted in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and has been an audience favorite at this year’s Cph:dox, South by Southwest and Hot Docs film festivals.
MTV will theatrically release “Black Box Diaries” this fall, beginning in October at New York’s Film Forum. The film will be qualified for awards consideration before streaming on Paramount+ for subscribers with the Showtime plan later this year. Last year, the division released two Oscar nominated docs — Maite Alberdi’s feature length “The Eternal Memory” and Sheila Nevin’s short titled “The ABCs of Book Banning.”
Ito’s 103-minute film tracks her arduous, five-year struggle to bring to justice renowned TV reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi for allegedly sexually assaulting her in...
- 5/9/2024
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The Mammoth Lakes Film Festival revealed its lineup for this year’s festival, taking place from May 22 – 26 at venues across Mammoth Lakes.
The festival will open with the California premiere of director Lucy Lawless’ “Never Look Away,” which follows a CNN combat camerawoman who gets injured and must find the strength to carry on. The closing night features “Black Box Diaries,” directed by Shiori Ito, who investigates her own sexual assault through the film.
A Short Films Program will also be featured at the festival, consisting of 38 narrative shorts, 20 documentary shorts, 10 animation shorts and a program of music videos and a screenplay competition.
The Mlff film lineup is as follows:
North American Narrative Features:
All I’ve Got and Then Some
Tehben Dean and Rasheed Stephens | United States
Atikamekw Suns
Chloé Leriche | Canada
Psykhodrame
Miles Blim | United States
The Last Night in the Life of Death
Isaiah Brody | United States...
The festival will open with the California premiere of director Lucy Lawless’ “Never Look Away,” which follows a CNN combat camerawoman who gets injured and must find the strength to carry on. The closing night features “Black Box Diaries,” directed by Shiori Ito, who investigates her own sexual assault through the film.
A Short Films Program will also be featured at the festival, consisting of 38 narrative shorts, 20 documentary shorts, 10 animation shorts and a program of music videos and a screenplay competition.
The Mlff film lineup is as follows:
North American Narrative Features:
All I’ve Got and Then Some
Tehben Dean and Rasheed Stephens | United States
Atikamekw Suns
Chloé Leriche | Canada
Psykhodrame
Miles Blim | United States
The Last Night in the Life of Death
Isaiah Brody | United States...
- 5/4/2024
- by Jazz Tangcay, Selena Kuznikov, Lexi Carson and Jack Dunn
- Variety Film + TV
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...
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...
- 4/30/2024
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
A 17-title buying spree from Scandinavian and Baltic distributor NonStop Entertainment includes deals for Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey, and Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance title A Different Man.
Diop’s documentary Dahomey tells the story of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (located within present-day Benin in Africa) that were returned to Benin after being held in a French museum. Films du Losange handles sales.
Sold by A24, Schimberg’s A Different Man stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson in the story of a man with neurofibromatosis, who undergoes surgery for a new start...
Diop’s documentary Dahomey tells the story of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (located within present-day Benin in Africa) that were returned to Benin after being held in a French museum. Films du Losange handles sales.
Sold by A24, Schimberg’s A Different Man stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson in the story of a man with neurofibromatosis, who undergoes surgery for a new start...
- 3/28/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Flats, a film about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, won the top award at Cph:dox in Copenhagen at a Friday night, earning a €10,000 prize.
The documentary directed by Alessadra Celisia takes place in “New Lodge in the center of Belfast, a neighborhood still haunted by the nearly 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants which officially ended in 1998.”
In their citation, the jury called the film witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative. They wrote, “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to...
The documentary directed by Alessadra Celisia takes place in “New Lodge in the center of Belfast, a neighborhood still haunted by the nearly 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants which officially ended in 1998.”
In their citation, the jury called the film witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative. They wrote, “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to...
- 3/23/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Alessandra Celesia’s The Flats scooped the main Dox:Award prize at Cph:Dox in Copenhagen this evening.
The film depicts a run-down Belfast housing estate, where echoes of conflict in Northern Ireland still haunt the lives of the residents.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The Flats is a co-production between France’s Films de Force Majeure, the UK’s Dumbworld Productions, Ireland’s Planet Korda Pictures and Belgium’s Thank You & Good Night Productions.
The Cph:dox jury praised it for “not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realise when the story outgrows its framework,...
The film depicts a run-down Belfast housing estate, where echoes of conflict in Northern Ireland still haunt the lives of the residents.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The Flats is a co-production between France’s Films de Force Majeure, the UK’s Dumbworld Productions, Ireland’s Planet Korda Pictures and Belgium’s Thank You & Good Night Productions.
The Cph:dox jury praised it for “not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realise when the story outgrows its framework,...
- 3/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Ema Ryan Yamazaki has spent the past few years working on two very different films.
The Making Of A Japanese, which screened at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festiva (Tidf) this month, pictures life at an idyllic Japanese primary school; Black Box Diaries, which she edited and coproduced, is directed by Shiori Itō, and tells the harrowing story of Itō’s own sexual assault.
The film follows her attempt to bring to justice her high-profile rapist, the journalist and media personality Noriyuki Yamaguchi.
The Making Of A Japanese aims to show Japanese society at its best. The second reveals the misogyny, corruption...
The Making Of A Japanese, which screened at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festiva (Tidf) this month, pictures life at an idyllic Japanese primary school; Black Box Diaries, which she edited and coproduced, is directed by Shiori Itō, and tells the harrowing story of Itō’s own sexual assault.
The film follows her attempt to bring to justice her high-profile rapist, the journalist and media personality Noriyuki Yamaguchi.
The Making Of A Japanese aims to show Japanese society at its best. The second reveals the misogyny, corruption...
- 3/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Toronto’s Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, has unveiled the full lineup of films that will screen in its Special Presentations program. The festival runs April 25 to May 5.
World premieres include “Red Fever,” which sees Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond travel to the four corners of Turtle Island and across Europe to explore the world’s fascination with Native Americans; “American Cats: The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly,” in which “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” correspondent Amy Hoggart explores the controversial practice of declawing cats; “The Ride Ahead,” an expansion of co-director Samuel Habib’s short film “My Disability Roadmap” (which got an Honorable Mention in the International Shorts section of Hot Docs in 2022), exploring a typical 21-year-old itching to move out, start a career and find love—all while navigating life with a disability; “Lost in the Shuffle,” which follows world champion magician Shawn Farquhar as...
World premieres include “Red Fever,” which sees Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond travel to the four corners of Turtle Island and across Europe to explore the world’s fascination with Native Americans; “American Cats: The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly,” in which “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” correspondent Amy Hoggart explores the controversial practice of declawing cats; “The Ride Ahead,” an expansion of co-director Samuel Habib’s short film “My Disability Roadmap” (which got an Honorable Mention in the International Shorts section of Hot Docs in 2022), exploring a typical 21-year-old itching to move out, start a career and find love—all while navigating life with a disability; “Lost in the Shuffle,” which follows world champion magician Shawn Farquhar as...
- 3/12/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Cph:dox, one Europe’s leading documentary film festivals, has announced its full program, which includes no fewer than 84 world premieres out of more than 200 films being screened in the Danish capital and nationwide from March 13 through March 24.
This 21st edition, which aims to make documentary film accessible not only to a select industry few but to the public at large, will take off with a new nationwide approach, with mini festivals running simultaneously in nearly half of Denmark’s municipalities. In addition, alongside the six main awards, a new Audience Award is being revived by popular request, which comes with a €5,000 prize.
Running alongside the festival’s overarching theme of “Body Politics,” which explores questions about the body and our understanding of it, organizers have announced the other main theme of this edition: “Conflicted.”
Born from the war in Gaza, which has hit the headlines again since Oct. 7 last year,...
This 21st edition, which aims to make documentary film accessible not only to a select industry few but to the public at large, will take off with a new nationwide approach, with mini festivals running simultaneously in nearly half of Denmark’s municipalities. In addition, alongside the six main awards, a new Audience Award is being revived by popular request, which comes with a €5,000 prize.
Running alongside the festival’s overarching theme of “Body Politics,” which explores questions about the body and our understanding of it, organizers have announced the other main theme of this edition: “Conflicted.”
Born from the war in Gaza, which has hit the headlines again since Oct. 7 last year,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Shiori Ito – face of Japan's #MeToo movement, one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020, and author of award-winning memoir “Black Box” (2017) – assembled a documentary recording her rollercoaster of a lawsuit against her rapist, Noriyuki Yamagauchi. This marks her debut feature, “Black Box Diaries,” which premiered as a part of the World Cinema – Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival last month.
“Black Box Diaries” premiered at Sundance 2024 in the World Cinema – Documentary Competition. Its sales are managed by Dogwoof.
The documentary follows the heels of other stories that have been published that focus on the #MeToo movement, such as Chanel Miller's memoir, “Know My Name” (2019); Ursula Macfarlane's Weinstein investigation “Untouchable” (2019); and more recently, the prolonged court battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard (2022). While many of the previous examples are centered in the US, however, Ito's investigative journalistic take on her own rape case explores the legal murkiness of the Japanese court.
“Black Box Diaries” premiered at Sundance 2024 in the World Cinema – Documentary Competition. Its sales are managed by Dogwoof.
The documentary follows the heels of other stories that have been published that focus on the #MeToo movement, such as Chanel Miller's memoir, “Know My Name” (2019); Ursula Macfarlane's Weinstein investigation “Untouchable” (2019); and more recently, the prolonged court battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard (2022). While many of the previous examples are centered in the US, however, Ito's investigative journalistic take on her own rape case explores the legal murkiness of the Japanese court.
- 2/19/2024
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Cph:dox, the prestigious documentary film festival in Copenhagen, has announced a competition program across six categories that features 47 world premieres.
The event, which has emerged as a rival to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) as the biggest and most important all-documentary festival in the world, will unfold from March 13-24 in the Danish capital. The Dox:award lineup – all world premieres – features films from the U.S., Canada, the Nordic countries and many other parts of Europe, including France, Ireland, and the U.K. Scroll for the lineups in all six competition strands.
“We’re thrilled to present this year’s competition films, which span from global geopolitics to intimate, existential queries,” noted Niklas Engstrøm, Cph:dox artistic director. “What unites these films is their ambition to engage with the world in a meaningful way. This year’s competition sharpens its focus on the most urgent issues of our time, from...
The event, which has emerged as a rival to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) as the biggest and most important all-documentary festival in the world, will unfold from March 13-24 in the Danish capital. The Dox:award lineup – all world premieres – features films from the U.S., Canada, the Nordic countries and many other parts of Europe, including France, Ireland, and the U.K. Scroll for the lineups in all six competition strands.
“We’re thrilled to present this year’s competition films, which span from global geopolitics to intimate, existential queries,” noted Niklas Engstrøm, Cph:dox artistic director. “What unites these films is their ambition to engage with the world in a meaningful way. This year’s competition sharpens its focus on the most urgent issues of our time, from...
- 2/16/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Filmmakers Alex Gibney, Johan Grimonprez and Laura Huertas Millan, along with industry figures Jessica Harrop from Sandbox and Marie Nelson from Hot Docs will be among the speakers at Cph:conference, the discussion program at documentary festival Cph:dox.
The program, which is curated in partnership with the training initiative Documentary Campus, has the theme “rebuilding narratives.”
The conference will kick off on March 18 with a collaboration with the Disco Network – made up of Ambulante, Aflamuna, DocsMX, Doc Society, DocSP, Docubox, In-Docs and India Docs – who will present and workshop “Our Declaration of Independence.” This session, led by Jad Abi-Khalil (Aflamuna) and Beadie Finzi (Doc Society), is a result of an initiative aiming to “articulate the importance of independent documentaries to culture, society and democracy, and to advocate for the resources and platforms they deserve.”
In the mornings of March 19-21, there will be thought-provoking conversations with filmmakers featured in this year’s Cph:dox program.
The program, which is curated in partnership with the training initiative Documentary Campus, has the theme “rebuilding narratives.”
The conference will kick off on March 18 with a collaboration with the Disco Network – made up of Ambulante, Aflamuna, DocsMX, Doc Society, DocSP, Docubox, In-Docs and India Docs – who will present and workshop “Our Declaration of Independence.” This session, led by Jad Abi-Khalil (Aflamuna) and Beadie Finzi (Doc Society), is a result of an initiative aiming to “articulate the importance of independent documentaries to culture, society and democracy, and to advocate for the resources and platforms they deserve.”
In the mornings of March 19-21, there will be thought-provoking conversations with filmmakers featured in this year’s Cph:dox program.
- 2/14/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSRei.Tanaka Toshihiko’s Rei (2024)—the director’s debut feature, which he also produced and edited, and in which he acts—has won the Tiger Award in Rotterdam. Mark Gustafson, acclaimed animator and co-director of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022), has died at the age of 64. Del Toro calls him “a pillar of stop-motion animation—a true artist.”In response to an open letter signed by more than 200 film workers (which has since been taken offline) the Berlin International Film Festival confirmed that it has invited two far-right German politicians to the opening ceremony but avers it stands “against right-wing extremism.”Recommended VIEWINGVia Dolorosa.The second part of Le Cinéma Club's two-week spotlight on Oraib Toukan features her film Via Dolorosa (2021), now streamable on the platform.
- 2/7/2024
- MUBI
While it is far from easy to broach topics relating to sexual assault in a still-conservative Japan, actor-turned-director Urara Matsubayashi felt it was vital to channel the pain and frustrations of her own experience as a survivor into her craft. Such a process led to “Blue Imagine,” Matsubayashi’s directorial debut about a young actor who finds refuge in a safe house in the wake of a violent assault.
The safe house, in this case, is the titular Blue Imagine, a group that meets at a local restaurant to support each other as they go through the traumatizing aftermath of sexual violence. “The starting point was my own experience,” Matsubayashi tells Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. “But I also wanted to portray camaraderie between women, and show how #MeToo is not restricted to one country, but the entire world.”
The director...
The safe house, in this case, is the titular Blue Imagine, a group that meets at a local restaurant to support each other as they go through the traumatizing aftermath of sexual violence. “The starting point was my own experience,” Matsubayashi tells Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. “But I also wanted to portray camaraderie between women, and show how #MeToo is not restricted to one country, but the entire world.”
The director...
- 1/30/2024
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
In the middle of Black Box Diaries, journalist Shiori Ito’s debut documentary, Ito grins at the camera as she strolls through downtown Tokyo on the day of her book launch. It’s October 18, 2017. The New York Times broke the Harvey Weinstein news two weeks ago. Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag #MeToo two days ago. Ito, fresh-faced and 28, happily recounts these events to the camera. The world may finally be ready to listen to her.
It’s hard to imagine a time before the #MeToo genie was let out of its bottle, but that’s what Ito asks of viewers as they journey back with her to 2015, when she says she was raped by a senior journalist with connections to then-president Shinzo Abe. Through an incredible amount of personal documentation––primarily videos, audio recordings, and journal entries––she grants viewers unprecedented access into her experience as a woman seeking justice for sex crimes in Japan.
It’s hard to imagine a time before the #MeToo genie was let out of its bottle, but that’s what Ito asks of viewers as they journey back with her to 2015, when she says she was raped by a senior journalist with connections to then-president Shinzo Abe. Through an incredible amount of personal documentation––primarily videos, audio recordings, and journal entries––she grants viewers unprecedented access into her experience as a woman seeking justice for sex crimes in Japan.
- 1/29/2024
- by Lena Wilson
- The Film Stage
The Sundance Film Festival has wrapped in snowy Park City, and Deadline was on the ground to watch all of the key films. Here is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which include festival award winners like Daughters, the documentary that took the Festival Favorite Award, and A Real Pain, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriter Award for its writer-director-star Jesse Eisenberg.
Other pics include several that were scooped up by distributors, led by Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence selling to Neon, A Real Pain going to Searchlight, Ghostlight to IFC Films, and Netflix’s smash $17 million deal for It’s What’s Inside.
Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (L-r) Justice Smith and David Alan Grier in ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Kobi Libii
Cast: Justice Smith,...
Other pics include several that were scooped up by distributors, led by Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence selling to Neon, A Real Pain going to Searchlight, Ghostlight to IFC Films, and Netflix’s smash $17 million deal for It’s What’s Inside.
Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (L-r) Justice Smith and David Alan Grier in ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Kobi Libii
Cast: Justice Smith,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Damon Wise, Valerie Complex and Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
In Black Box Diaries, director Shiori Ito confronts abuse but also a deeply flawed legal system. Her quest for justice begins in spring 2015. Then a young intern at Thomson Reuters, Ito found herself in a nightmarish situation with Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent media figure with political connections in Japan. At the time, he worked at the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television and was the personal biographer for Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan.
After she reported a sexual assault incident against Yamaguchi she was met with formidable challenges, as she navigated a legal system steeped in outdated laws that placed burden of proof on the victims. Ito’s struggle was not just against her assailant but also against a societal framework that silences survivors. Facing public slander, character assassination and the daunting reality of confronting Yamaguchi, she had no idea that acting as an investigative journalist for her own...
After she reported a sexual assault incident against Yamaguchi she was met with formidable challenges, as she navigated a legal system steeped in outdated laws that placed burden of proof on the victims. Ito’s struggle was not just against her assailant but also against a societal framework that silences survivors. Facing public slander, character assassination and the daunting reality of confronting Yamaguchi, she had no idea that acting as an investigative journalist for her own...
- 1/28/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Amid the surfeit of films about women’s rights and men’s abuses of power that have emerged in the wake of the #MeToo reckoning, we haven’t yet seen one quite like “Black Box Diaries.” A tightly wound, heart-on-sleeve procedural documentary, Shiori Ito’s directorial debut identifies a world of systemic iniquities through the prism of a single, long labored-over case of sexual assault — crucially, the director’s own. That raw first-person perspective, untempered by the interests of another filmmaker and given narrative rigor by Ito’s substantial journalistic skills, makes “Black Box Diaries” not just a damning analysis of patriarchal power structures in contemporary Japan, but a vivid evocation of the day-to-day psychological swings and breaks that come with living as a survivor. The title’s allusion to diary-keeping is on point: Ito’s vulnerabilities can be discomfiting to witness, even with her consent.
A standout of the...
A standout of the...
- 1/26/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
On the night of April 3, 2015, Shiori Itō, an intern at Thomson Reuters, met Noriyuki Yamaguchi at a restaurant under the guise of a job interview. Yamaguchi, then the Washington bureau chief of Tokyo Broadcasting System and a personal friend (and biographer) of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was a mover and shaker in Japanese media and politics with the power to change her career. The last thing Itō remembers from that dinner is getting violently ill in the bathroom. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a hotel room...
- 1/25/2024
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
In one of the most unusual and inspiring sights which will surely go down in Sundance lore, Black Box Diaries director Shiori Ito led audience members in a post-premiere karaoke rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’.
‘Black Box Diaries’: Sundance Review
The spontaneous event immediately followed the Q&a session after the world premiere of the Japanese journalist’s debut feature in which she chronicled her struggle for justice against her high-profile rapist.
An exhilarated and exhilarating Ito, microphone still in hand, sung along and invited ticket holders to join her on stage at Prospector Square Theatre...
‘Black Box Diaries’: Sundance Review
The spontaneous event immediately followed the Q&a session after the world premiere of the Japanese journalist’s debut feature in which she chronicled her struggle for justice against her high-profile rapist.
An exhilarated and exhilarating Ito, microphone still in hand, sung along and invited ticket holders to join her on stage at Prospector Square Theatre...
- 1/21/2024
- ScreenDaily
In one of the most unusual and inspiring sights which will surely go down in Sundance lore, Black Box Diaries director Shiori Ito led audience members in a post-premiere karaoke rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’.
‘Black Box Diaries’: Sundance Review
The spontaneous event immediately followed the Q&a session after the world premiere of the Japanese journalist’s debut feature in which she chronicled her struggle to seek justice against her high-profile rapist.
An exhilarated and exhilarating Ito, microphone still in hand, sung along and invited ticket holders to join her on stage at Prospector Square...
‘Black Box Diaries’: Sundance Review
The spontaneous event immediately followed the Q&a session after the world premiere of the Japanese journalist’s debut feature in which she chronicled her struggle to seek justice against her high-profile rapist.
An exhilarated and exhilarating Ito, microphone still in hand, sung along and invited ticket holders to join her on stage at Prospector Square...
- 1/21/2024
- ScreenDaily
Two UK productions and nine UK co-productions are in the line-up.
Rose Glass’ much-anticipated follow-up toSaint Maud, Love Lies Bleeding, is among 11 UK productions or co-productions heading to Salt Lake City for next year’s Sundance Film Festival (January 18-28), following yesterday’s line-up announcement of the 82 features programmed.
The overall figure of UK projects programmed is similar to last year’s line-up. Six UK productions and five UK co-productions premiered in 2023. In 2024, two UK productions and nine co-productions will play.
Screen Star of Tomorrow Glass’ thriller Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart, and is set in the world of competitive bodybuilding.
Rose Glass’ much-anticipated follow-up toSaint Maud, Love Lies Bleeding, is among 11 UK productions or co-productions heading to Salt Lake City for next year’s Sundance Film Festival (January 18-28), following yesterday’s line-up announcement of the 82 features programmed.
The overall figure of UK projects programmed is similar to last year’s line-up. Six UK productions and five UK co-productions premiered in 2023. In 2024, two UK productions and nine co-productions will play.
Screen Star of Tomorrow Glass’ thriller Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart, and is set in the world of competitive bodybuilding.
- 12/7/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Festival will take place January 18–28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City.
Sundance Film Festival’s top brass have unveiled the 40th anniversary edition line-up for 2024 as Steven Soderbergh makes his return as director for the first time since his 1989 breakout sex, lies and videotape, and Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is the opening night film.
The full slate of works announced includes 82 features representing 24 countries, and 91 selections including episodic programmes. World premieres make up 94% of the entire roster, and 40% of the filmmakers are debutants.
The festival will take place January...
Sundance Film Festival’s top brass have unveiled the 40th anniversary edition line-up for 2024 as Steven Soderbergh makes his return as director for the first time since his 1989 breakout sex, lies and videotape, and Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is the opening night film.
The full slate of works announced includes 82 features representing 24 countries, and 91 selections including episodic programmes. World premieres make up 94% of the entire roster, and 40% of the filmmakers are debutants.
The festival will take place January...
- 12/6/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
After “Fake” and the portrait of Mamoru Samuragochi, Tatsuya Mori deals with another rather interesting personality, that of journalist Isoko Mochizuki, who has already inspired a feature film before this documentary, namely the multi-awarded “The Journalist“.
“i: Documentary of the Journalist” is screening at Nippon Connection 2020
The majority of the documentary has Mori following Mochizuki with his camera, as she partakes on many press conferences and researches the most important stories of Japan in 2019. In that fashion, her non-stop work has her deal with the transfer of the Us base in Hinoko, Okinawa, the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, which involved Shinzo Abe’s wife, and Shiori Ito’s charges of rape towards Noriyuki Yamaguchi, and the scandal of the cover up that followed. Her research of these cases, which include following Shiori Ito in the various events she participates to communicate her case, interviews with people involved, and questions to the various political offices,...
“i: Documentary of the Journalist” is screening at Nippon Connection 2020
The majority of the documentary has Mori following Mochizuki with his camera, as she partakes on many press conferences and researches the most important stories of Japan in 2019. In that fashion, her non-stop work has her deal with the transfer of the Us base in Hinoko, Okinawa, the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, which involved Shinzo Abe’s wife, and Shiori Ito’s charges of rape towards Noriyuki Yamaguchi, and the scandal of the cover up that followed. Her research of these cases, which include following Shiori Ito in the various events she participates to communicate her case, interviews with people involved, and questions to the various political offices,...
- 6/9/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
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