Dismissing criminality with political pressure is hardly limited to Donald Trump and the Trumpettes … or the United States … or the present day. This is a story long told again and again and again. It is as old as politics. In some cases, it is the very reason for politics. Lives can be and have been destroyed once with the crime and twice with the inability to receive justice. That is the manner of lopsided relationships. And it always will be so long as we keep handing power to the Trumps of this world.
*sigh*
In 2015, a young Japanese journalist by the name of Shiori Itô (writer/director/victim – this documentary is based on a non-fiction book she wrote) was drugged and raped.
She wasn’t believed.
Why wasn’t she believed?
Because the rapist was a good buddy of (then) Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.
There was proof. There was video proof. We see Shiori Itô reluctant to get out of a cab; even drugged, she knows she’s with a monster. And we see justice grind to a halt. And then we see the backlash. And if you can’t imagine it, you haven’t been paying attention. A woman who can’t work and can’t be in public following the biggest trauma of her life gets hate mail and death threats because she had the audacity to seek justice. Some women with similar stories don’t even seek justice; their lives will be ruined anyway — just ask Christine Blasey Ford.
Black Box Diaries is the documentary of Shiori Itô’s eight-year-long struggle to get back to square one. To get justice. To get a career. To get a life. These things were taken from her, and then she was taunted by powerful people unafraid to do horrible things because they knew society wouldn’t hold them accountable.
Donald Trump may not have been a player in this movie, but this is the story of every woman abused under the Trump administration. And it is the story of every person who 
dared attempt to hold Trump accountable for his many, many, many crimes. We all know now that will never happen; Americans don’t have the stomach or the guts to speak truth to power. Oh, we speak lies to and about power every.single.day, but speaking truth to power is reserved for cultures that respect accountability.
Ours isn’t one.
I’d say here that this documentary should be required viewing for every American, but it doesn’t matter. Any culture capable of electing Donald Trump twice is too immature for this. Go ahead and keep your heads firmly planted up your asses, America. Watch Donald Trump and his gang of loons commit crime and crime after crime for the next four+ years and do nothing. You enabled this. Just like the Japanese enabled Shinzo’s buddy to destroy a better life than his.
Ambition? Revered
So long as no one famous
Is held to account
Not Rated, 102 Minutes
Director: Shiori Itô
Writer: Shiori Itô
Genre: Speaking truth to POWER
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Feminists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Trumpies
