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
Canada’s Hot Docs documentary festival has wrapped its 31st edition in Toronto (May 5) and named Yintah the winner of its Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary.
The award, whose winner is determined by an audience poll, comes with a cash prize of Cad 50,000.
Directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Yintah is about the efforts of the Canadian First Nation Wet’suwet’en people to resist the construction of pipelines across their territory.
On Friday evening (May 3) Hot Docs announced the prize winners from its official competition line-up (full list below).
The festival’s Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award,...
The award, whose winner is determined by an audience poll, comes with a cash prize of Cad 50,000.
Directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Yintah is about the efforts of the Canadian First Nation Wet’suwet’en people to resist the construction of pipelines across their territory.
On Friday evening (May 3) Hot Docs announced the prize winners from its official competition line-up (full list below).
The festival’s Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award,...
- 5/6/2024
- ScreenDaily
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
DC/Dox has unveiled the lineup for its second annual edition, which takes place in Washington, D.C., from June 13-16. The documentary festival will kick things off with “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” the Warner Bros. Discovery film that premiered at Sundance earlier this year.
The second edition of the fest includes 51 features and 47 shorts from 17 countries. That’s up from last year’s state of 31 features and 21 shorts from eight countries. This year’s lineup is made of 60% of filmmakers identifying as women or non-binary. Films will screen at venues including Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, the Burke Theatre at the U.S. Navy Memorial, and the National Archives.
“The films on the 2024 slate highlight the remarkable breadth and depth of documentary storytelling today,” says DC/Dox co-founder and festival director Sky Sitney. “From filmmakers around the world, these works recalibrate the past through archival footage, immerse themselves...
The second edition of the fest includes 51 features and 47 shorts from 17 countries. That’s up from last year’s state of 31 features and 21 shorts from eight countries. This year’s lineup is made of 60% of filmmakers identifying as women or non-binary. Films will screen at venues including Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, the Burke Theatre at the U.S. Navy Memorial, and the National Archives.
“The films on the 2024 slate highlight the remarkable breadth and depth of documentary storytelling today,” says DC/Dox co-founder and festival director Sky Sitney. “From filmmakers around the world, these works recalibrate the past through archival footage, immerse themselves...
- 5/1/2024
- by Addie Morfoot
- 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
Well-established docu sales outfit Cinephil has acquired world rights to the U.S. doc “Black Snow,” directed and produced by New York-based Alina Simone of Prettier in the Dark Productions.
For her doc feature debut, due to world premiere at Copenhagen’s Cph:dox in the F:act competition program, Ukraine-born Simone has teamed up with Academy Award-nominated producer Kirstine Barfod (“The Cave”).
“I was in the U.S. for the promotion of Feras Fayyad’s ‘The Cave’ when I heard about this project about the ‘Erin Brockovich of Russia.’ I got immediately intrigued,” says New York-based Barfod, involved in her first U.S.-produced documentary through her banner Nordland Pictures.
Director Alina Simone
The film is both an eco-thriller, and an awe-inspiring portrait of Russian mother-turned-environmental journalist Natalia Zubkova. We follow her as she embarks on a perilous crusade in the heart of Siberia, in the name of truth and healthy living,...
For her doc feature debut, due to world premiere at Copenhagen’s Cph:dox in the F:act competition program, Ukraine-born Simone has teamed up with Academy Award-nominated producer Kirstine Barfod (“The Cave”).
“I was in the U.S. for the promotion of Feras Fayyad’s ‘The Cave’ when I heard about this project about the ‘Erin Brockovich of Russia.’ I got immediately intrigued,” says New York-based Barfod, involved in her first U.S.-produced documentary through her banner Nordland Pictures.
Director Alina Simone
The film is both an eco-thriller, and an awe-inspiring portrait of Russian mother-turned-environmental journalist Natalia Zubkova. We follow her as she embarks on a perilous crusade in the heart of Siberia, in the name of truth and healthy living,...
- 3/6/2024
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
MoMA’s annual Doc Fortnight begins as the Berlinale winds down, allowing the fest to grab freshly premiered titles from there, Rotterdam and Sundance. This year’s 23rd edition has 13 features, six shorts and three “evenings with”; I was able to sample about half of the work one way or another. Days after Zhou Tao’s The Periphery of the Base Berlinale premiere, his conceptually immaculate The Axis of Big Data makes its North American premiere here. The milky grey background of the opening […]
The post Doc Fortnight 2024: The Axis of Big Data, Preemptive Listening, Small Hours of the Night, Silence of Reason first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Doc Fortnight 2024: The Axis of Big Data, Preemptive Listening, Small Hours of the Night, Silence of Reason first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/22/2024
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
MoMA’s annual Doc Fortnight begins as the Berlinale winds down, allowing the fest to grab freshly premiered titles from there, Rotterdam and Sundance. This year’s 23rd edition has 13 features, six shorts and three “evenings with”; I was able to sample about half of the work one way or another. Days after Zhou Tao’s The Periphery of the Base Berlinale premiere, his conceptually immaculate The Axis of Big Data makes its North American premiere here. The milky grey background of the opening […]
The post Doc Fortnight 2024: The Axis of Big Data, Preemptive Listening, Small Hours of the Night, Silence of Reason first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Doc Fortnight 2024: The Axis of Big Data, Preemptive Listening, Small Hours of the Night, Silence of Reason first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/22/2024
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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
The SXSW Film Festival announced today 50 new films, Xr projects and television programs that complete the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival lineup. Among the world premieres are the latest from The Voyeurs director Michael Mohan, who reunites with star Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate; Dev Patel’s action thriller Monkey Man; Alice Lowe’s followup to her Prevenge, Timestalker; and a new film from The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby director Ned Benson, The Greatest Hits. Festival favorites traveling from Park City to Austin include Didi, Black Box Diaries, Love Machina, Ghostlight and I Saw the TV Glow. Of particular interest to […]
The post SXSW Announces 50 New Projects for Its 2024 Program, Including Films from Michael Mohan, Nicole Riegel and Alice Lowe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post SXSW Announces 50 New Projects for Its 2024 Program, Including Films from Michael Mohan, Nicole Riegel and Alice Lowe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/7/2024
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The SXSW Film Festival announced today 50 new films, Xr projects and television programs that complete the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival lineup. Among the world premieres are the latest from The Voyeurs director Michael Mohan, who reunites with star Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate; Dev Patel’s action thriller Monkey Man; Alice Lowe’s followup to her Prevenge, Timestalker; and a new film from The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby director Ned Benson, The Greatest Hits. Festival favorites traveling from Park City to Austin include Didi, Black Box Diaries, Love Machina, Ghostlight and I Saw the TV Glow. Of particular interest to […]
The post SXSW Announces 50 New Projects for Its 2024 Program, Including Films from Michael Mohan, Nicole Riegel and Alice Lowe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post SXSW Announces 50 New Projects for Its 2024 Program, Including Films from Michael Mohan, Nicole Riegel and Alice Lowe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/7/2024
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
How does one person make change? What does it take? How brave must they be, how much courage does it take, how much resistance will they encounter, how will they overcome the push-back, how long will it take to enact real change? These questions are answered in this outstanding documentary film from Japan titled Black Box Diaries. This film is, unfortunately, about a sexual assault, but it's also about much more than that – it's about battling an archaic system and outdated laws and misogyny and everything else bad that comes with patriarchal societies. In my humble opinion, I think this is one of the best #MeToo films ever made. For many reasons that go beyond just showing the #MeToo movement from the inside, from one of the women leading it. Black Box Diaries is an exceptional film that is as emotional & invigorating as it is fascinating & frustrating to watch. How can anyone be against her?...
- 2/1/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It can be hard for some to fully reckon with systemic issues like sexual abuse because of the sheer scale of them. Conversations about the legal issues that allow these crimes to go unpunished or the culture of misogyny that fosters them often lose sight of the actual experiences of the victims. Even that label, “victims,” has a way of reducing a person’s identity to nothing more than something that was done to them. With Black Box Diaries, journalist and filmmaker Itô Shiori details her own quest for justice from an intimate, personal perspective that ensures her humanity is always at the very center of the frame.
In 2015, Itô was raped by Yamaguchi Noriyuki, a prominent Japanese TV journalist and friend of Abe Shinzô, then prime minister of Japan. The film opens in eerie quiet as we watch the CCTV footage from the hotel where the assault took place...
In 2015, Itô was raped by Yamaguchi Noriyuki, a prominent Japanese TV journalist and friend of Abe Shinzô, then prime minister of Japan. The film opens in eerie quiet as we watch the CCTV footage from the hotel where the assault took place...
- 2/1/2024
- by Ross McIndoe
- Slant Magazine
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
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
2024 Sundance Film Festival
Through Sunday, one can experience the 2024 Sundance Film Festival from the comfort of their own home, if it’s in the United States. Having seen over 50 titles in the lineup, in terms of films with tickets still available I can highly recommend Good One, Between the Temples, Tendaberry, Black Box Diaries, Ibelin, Kneecap, Didi, Brief History of a Family, Porcelain War, Sugarcane, Sujo, Seeking Mavis Beacon, Skywalkers: A Love Story, Union, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, and Realm of Satan. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Official Site (through Sunday only)
Amanda (Carolina Cavalli)
Sofia Coppola’s eighth feature doesn’t hit theaters for another few months, but you’d be forgiven if you thought it was actually Amanda, writer-director Carolina Cavalli’s darkly humorous,...
2024 Sundance Film Festival
Through Sunday, one can experience the 2024 Sundance Film Festival from the comfort of their own home, if it’s in the United States. Having seen over 50 titles in the lineup, in terms of films with tickets still available I can highly recommend Good One, Between the Temples, Tendaberry, Black Box Diaries, Ibelin, Kneecap, Didi, Brief History of a Family, Porcelain War, Sugarcane, Sujo, Seeking Mavis Beacon, Skywalkers: A Love Story, Union, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, and Realm of Satan. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Official Site (through Sunday only)
Amanda (Carolina Cavalli)
Sofia Coppola’s eighth feature doesn’t hit theaters for another few months, but you’d be forgiven if you thought it was actually Amanda, writer-director Carolina Cavalli’s darkly humorous,...
- 1/26/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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
As one examines the abundance of cultures worldwide, to see the marginal way women continue to be treated on a global scale remains infuriating to take in during the era of #MeToo and the fact that seemingly little progress has been made even as our society makes its way into 2024. Though gains can undeniably be acknowledged on the political front and numerous other fields, it’s still apparent that an ocean exists in the way of real change, with “Black Box Diaries” a stunning example of the heavily outdated customs in which parts of our minuscule planet find themselves stuck and the women who suffer as a direct result.
Continue reading ‘Black Box Diaries’ Review: A Gripping Look At One Woman’s Quest For Closure [Sundance] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Black Box Diaries’ Review: A Gripping Look At One Woman’s Quest For Closure [Sundance] at The Playlist.
- 1/24/2024
- by Brian Farvour
- The Playlist
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
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