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Ito Shiori’s Next Goal: Releasing BLACK BOX DIARIES in Japan
It’s the first documentary by a Japanese director ever nominated for an Oscar — but it still hasn’t screened in Japan.
By Jay Allen
Ito Shiori’s film about her sexual assault, Black Box Diaries, didn’t win the Academy Award for Best Documentary. The journalist and first-time director, however, say she’s not fazed and is focused on a larger goal: getting her Oscar-nominated film to screen in her own country.
The 35-year-old Ito, whose film also marked her directorial debut, sees her over a period of six years fighting for justice after she was raped by reporter Yamaguchi Noriyuki. The film, which is now available online, contains some powerful and disturbing footage, including hotel security camera footage of Yamaguchi spending over a minute hauling her barely-unconscious body out of a taxi into his hotel.
The movie’s won worldwide acclaim and became the first film by a Japanese director to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. The award went to No Other Land, a film by Palestinian and Israeli activists that documents the gradual destruction of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank by Israeli forces.
Shining a light on a difficult topic
While acclaimed worldwide, the film has yet to air in Japan. Ito’s former lawyers have railed against it, saying she failed to secure permission to use footage from the hotel and others featured in the documentary.
While nothing legally prevents the film from screening, distributors and theaters have shied away due to the ruckus by the people who were once Ito’s allies. Producer Eric Nyari has said that many theaters have shied away because the same companies that own theaters also own hotels, making it a sensitive issue for them. Ito has said distributors simply don’t want the controversy.
In an interview with Nikkan Sports, Ito says she’s happy that No Other Land won and communicated her congratulations to the filmmakers.
