I 2015 tar den høytstående journalisten Noriyuki Yamaguchi med seg en beruset Shiori Itō inn på hotellrommet sitt. To år senere anklager hun ham for voldtekt, og setter med det i gang den lange prosessen for å få ham dømt. På det tidspunktet hadde det japanske lovverket rundt voldtekt stått uendret i et århundre. Få anmelder voldtekt, og de som gjør det risikerer hets og trakassering.

Black Box Diaries er både en intim fortelling om å leve videre etter et overgrep og et rasende opprør mot japanske holdninger og lovgivning knyttet til seksuell vold.

«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 –

Shiori Itō (f. 1989) er en japansk journalist, filmskaper og aktivist. I 2017 ga hun ut den selvbiografiske boka Black Box, som siden har blitt oversatt til ti språk. Black Box Diaries er hennes første helaftens dokumentar, og hadde sin premiere på Sundance Film Festival.

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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 –

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.