Film picks: The documentary Black Box Diaries, a record a journalist seeking justice for her sexual assault
Arze stars Diamand Abou Abboud as a single mother looking for money to buy her son a scooter.
Arze (NC16)
92 minutes, opens at The Projector on Aug 15
Lebanese writer-director Mira Shaib's debut feature tells the story of Arze (Diamand Abou Abboud), a single mother living in Beirut searching for the money to buy a scooter for her son's 18th birthday.
Her efforts lead to an adventure that uncovers the secrets that have held her family together. Her family's history, in turn, is tied to the history of Lebanon, a country marked by conflict and the often tense co-existence of diverse Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.
The film was Lebanon's official entry to the Best International Feature Film category at the 2025 Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
A review in entertainment news publication Variety says 'Shaib's directorial debut has the growing pains of a first feature', bu t ' as it gradually explores its political backdrop, its drama transforms in intriguing, even exciting ways'.
Black Box Diaries (NC16)
103 minutes
Some years ago, journalist Shiori Ito was sexually assaulted by a bureau chief at a Japanese broadcasting network. He had connections with highly-placed government officials.
Through the use of security footage, news clips and Ito' s r ecordings, the documentary follows her journey to find justice in a nation where the police are known to discourage women from reporting rape and to treat cases of sexual violence lightly, or drop sexual assault cases without giving reasons, forcing victims to seek redress in civil court.
Through her work, Ito became a key figure in Japan's #MeToo movement, which made her a target of online trolls. Despite this, she persisted and in 2017 published a memoir, on which this documentary is based.
The film has received numerous prizes, including a Peabody Award, given for outstanding work in broadcast and online media, and a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards.
There will be a virtual question-and-answer session with director Ito after the July 27 screening.
Where: The Projector at Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road
MRT: Somerset
When: July 27, 1.30pm
Admission: $17.50 (standard tickets), discounts are available for students, seniors and others
Info:
str.sg/Bsho
Singapore Film Society Special Presentation: Hong Kong Horror Classics
Centipede Horror will be screened on Aug 2 and Sept 5.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE FILM SOCIETY
When the craze for martial arts movies tapered off in the 1980s, Hong Kong's film factories pivoted to the other staple of exploitation cinema: horror. The Singapore Film Society presents two classics of the genre, restored in 4K, uncut and in their original Cantonese, screened here for the first time.
Centipede Horror (1982, M18, 93 minutes, screens on Aug 2 and Sept 5, 7pm) capitalises on the fascination Hong Kongers used to have for South-east Asian black magic. It features actor Hussein Abu Hassan playing a bomoh (Malay shaman) with the ability to summon the centipedes of the title for deadly purposes. When Wai Lun (Michael Miu) investigates his sister's death, he uncovers a generational curse that involves creepy-crawlies.
The Sept 5 screening will include a post-screening talk about the film's representation of South-east Asian black magic, led by Assistant Professor Yeo Min Hui, a scholar in East and South-east Asian film and cultural studies at Nanyang Technological University.
Red Spell Spells Red (1983, R21, 93 minutes, screens on Aug 1 and Sept 6, 7pm) also rides on the craze for South-east Asian black magic. A film crew shooting a documentary about the paranormal in Borneo unleashes a ghost. The result is an R21-rated spectacle of gore and nudity, which the Monster Zone horror appreciation website calls 'a brazen, gonzo, shameless piece of exploitation film-making'.
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