I happened to watch Black Box Diaries on the same day that dozens of guilty verdicts came down in a high-profile drugging-and-rape trial in France. The victim, Gisele Pelicot, had been hailed a feminist hero for demanding all evidence be shared in open court. That was something Japanese journalist Shiori Ito was unable to do, since her alleged rapist– an older, prominent journalist– never faced criminal charges. He had friends in high places– including then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But rather than revert to the shadows, Shiori wrote a memoir about her ordeal (“Black Box,” 2017) and pursued a civil case against her attacker. She also documented her years-long battle, leveraging her skills as a journalist to conduct her own investigation and ‘pry open’ the black box of secrecy and denial that permeated the Japanese justice system when it came to cases of sexual assault. Black Box Diaries is both a documentary and a #MeToo crime drama procedural that unwinds like an episode of Law & Order: SVU.
The documentary is powerful and absorbing. As the director of her own story, Shiori owns and controls every aspect of the film, including how and when the viewer gets to see the face, and hear the voice, of the accused. We also see when she is at her lowest and most fragile, and when she regains the spirit to fight so that other victims of sexual assault could come forward without shame and institutional roadblocks. The film documents some positively heart-wrenching moments, particularly when Shiori finds comfort and support from a group of female journalists, and toward the end, in a phone conversation with a doorman from the hotel where she was raped. Shiori cries. We cry.
Black Box Diaries made the Academy’s short list for Documentary Feature Film and certainly deserves to be seen. The film opens with an on-screen trigger warning, to forewarn others who may have gone through similar trauma. The film’s website offers additional info, and resources for victims of sexual violence.
Following its theatrical release, Black Box Diaries debuts exclusively on Paramount+ with Showtime on January 7, 2025. Add it to the queue.