Written by Zach Salter. Header by Grace Mcglynn @Gracem_Illustrations

Documentaries hold a unique and powerful capacity for resonance. Often, I find myself returning to films like “Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father,” the true-crime masterwork of Kurt Kuenne, or “Heart of a Dog,” Laurie Anderson’s audio-visual reckoning with the losses of her loved ones – and I find myself connecting with the artistic catharsis on screen. The first film from Japanese journalist Shiori Itō is, in many ways, just like those monumental works, but its existence also proves that those former films were effective for more than just their stories.

In 2015, Itō experienced sexual assault at the hands of Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent public figure and a friend of Japan’s Prime Minister Abe. Although she filed a police report regarding the incident, it was quickly dismissed, and she soon embarked on a quest for justice – including the making of this film. “Black Box Diaries”may only be a hundred minutes long, but its gripping and often-times devastating story is overwhelming for the viewer in the way that the real-time events clearly were for Itō.

Her choice to direct the film as a debut is bold, and it allows for the type of immersion that most biographical documentaries lack. However, it sometimes feels as if her lack of filmmaking experience belittles the power of her haunting story, with visuals and a pace that aren’t quite as engaging. The majority of the film’s presentation is composed of at-home videos of Itō, who writes a memoir about her assault and records phone calls with friends and investigators. The material itself is certainly intriguing and compelling, but it feels as if a tighter pace and shorter runtime could have made it a more accessible watch.

Shiori Itō’s search for justice is a remarkable portrait of human resilience in the face of incomprehensible corruption, but it never reaches the exhilarating heights of the work of her personal-filmmaking peers. “Black Box Diaries” is absolutely worth giving a shot, if only to admire the fearlessness of its first-time filmmaker, but its sluggish pace may not shock all viewers to their cores quite like other documentaries – and it may even put them to sleep, like the elderly moviegoer who sat next to me.