A Conversation with Shiori Ito | 10/09/2025

Brook Mind '26 sits down for a conversation with Shiori Ito.

Shiori Ito is an Oscar and BAFTA nominated documentary filmmaker, journalist, writer, and co-founder of Hanashi Films, focusing on gender-based human rights issues. Named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020, her voice continues to resonate globally through film, writing, and public speaking

Ito’s earlier work includes documentaries highlighting social justice and personal stories from across the globe. Her debut feature, Black Box Diaries, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and has since been released worldwide. The film won a Peabody Award, received Oscar and BAFTA nominations, and earned more than twenty international prizes. Screened in over fifty countries, it has sparked global conversations on gender, power, and justice.

Ito is the author of Black Box (2017), a memoir based on her own experience of sexual violence that exposed systemic sexism in Japan. In 2018, it won the Free Press Association of Japan’s Best Journalism Award and has since been translated into ten languages including English. Her latest book, Swim Naked (2023), was published in Japan and China, exploring themes of resilience, vulnerability, and survival.

Ito’s work has appeared in outlets such as the BBC, Al Jazeera, and The Economist. She was recognized by Newsweek Japan as one of the “100 Most Respected Japanese People in the World” in 2019 and named One Young World’s Journalist of the Year in 2022.