A crusading female reporter gets her own spotlight
Sneak Preview Screening: "i: Documentary of the Journalist (i -Shimbun Kisha Document- )"
followed by a Q&A session with director Tatsuya Mori and producer Mitsunobu Kawamura
Tuesday, November 12 at 6:45 pm*
*Note early start time.
In Japanese with English subtitles
Japan, 2019 120 minutes
Directed by: Tatsuya Mori
Produced by: Mitsunobu Kawamura
Featuring: Isoko Mochizuki
Film courtesy of Star Sands
Japan's traditional media have earned a (mostly deserved) rep for their herd mentality, for obediently following the dictates of their kisha clubs and acting "more as stenographers than inquisitors," as Motoko Rich recently put it in the New York Times.
That makes Isoko Mochizuki, a reporter for Tokyo's largest regional paper, The Tokyo Shimbun, a notable exception. Defying the dominant media culture - and becoming something of a press freedom folk hero in the process - she has waged a lonely battle for the truth, particularly at the Cabinet Office briefings that have helped make her famous. Refusing to toe the government line, she has relentlessly peppered officials with questions in her quest to get behind their smokescreens - even at the risk of ejection from the club.
As the government continues to crack down on press activities and to deny the public's right to know about certain issues, that very public finally seems to be waking up. After Mochizuki was publicly censured by the Cabinet Office recently, hundreds of supporters turned up at the prime minister's office, rallying for greater transparency. And in June, "The Journalist," an independent political thriller loosely based on a 2017 book written by Mochizuki, with a protagonist who is clearly inspired by her, became a surprise hit.
Mitsunobu Kawamura, the producer of that hit, has now produced a documentary about the crusading female reporter, working with acclaimed documentarian Tatsuya Mori. They are currently rushing to complete it before the world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
We're very pleased to present this sneak preview shortly after the premiere, just prior to the film's opening on November 15 in Tokyo.
For more: http://www.i-shimbunkisha.jp/
For the trailer (in Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HafYKE2PvY
Director TATSUYA MORI is a documentary filmmaker, TV director and author of many books on social issues and the media. He directed "A" in 1988, a documentary about the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which received acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival. The 2001 sequel, "A2," won awards at the Yamagata Documentary Film Festival. In 2001, he collaborated with two other filmmakers to make "311" about the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake. His 2016 "Fake" followed a famous blind composer as a hoax was (or wasn't) revealed. Mori is a professor at Meiji University.
MITSUNOBU KAWAMURA is a producer and the CEO of specialty distributor Star Sands. He is known for Oxide Pang Chun's "The Tesseract" (2003), Yang Yonghi's "Our Homeland" (2012), which was Japan's official Oscar entry that year and which we screened at FCCJ and "The Journalist." (2019).
Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk (3211-3161) or register below. You may attend the Q&A session without attending the screening, but you will not have seating priority. All film screenings are private, noncommercial events primarily for FCCJ members and their guests.
- Karen Severns, Film Committee
