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’.
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 as soon as the venue began to broadcast Gaynor’s disco anthem.
During the Q&A session an ebullient Ito lavished praise on her attending filmmaking team including producers Hanna Aqvilin and Eric Nyari and editor Emma Ryan Yamazaki, who sifted through more than 400 hours of footage.
Black Box Diaries takes its name from Black Box, Ito’s landmark 2017 memoir which is credited with igniting #MeToo in Japan in the wake of her 2015 sexual assault by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, the Washington bureau chief for the Tokyo Broadcasting System who wrote the biography of the late Japanese leader, Shinzo Abe.
After prosecutors dropped charges against Yamaguchi, Ito embarked on a crusade, investigating her own case. The case eventually went through the civil courts and in 2019 Yamaguchi was ordered to pay damages of 3.3m Yen, approximately $30,000 at the time.
Ito bares her soul in the film, coming across as vulnerable and at times comical, but always courageous and defiant.
Black Box Diaries screens again on Sunday and throughout the week. Dogwoof handles worldwide sales.
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