Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Black Box Diaries’ To Make Paramount+ With Showtime Debut In January: Compelling Documentary “Unfolds Like A Thriller”

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Black Box Diaries, the award-winning documentary that just made the Oscar shortlist, will debut on Paramount+ with Showtime in the U.S.

next month. Shiori Itō’s film, winner of the Human Rights Award at CPH:DOX and three awards at the Zurich Film Festival among many other honors, will bow on the streaming platform January 7.

Oscar nomination voting begins the next day – Wednesday, Jan. 8. “Black Box Diaries follows director Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender,” notes a release. “Unfolding like a thriller and combining secret investigative recordings, vérité shooting and emotional first-person video, her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s desperately outdated judicial and societal systems.” The documentary marks Itō’s feature film directorial debut. “A journalist, writer and filmmaker with a focus on gender-based human rights issues, Shiori Ito wrote the bestselling book Black Box based on her experience.

The book went on to win the Free Press Association of Japan Award for Best Journalism in 2018 and is now available in 11 languages, including English.