Now in its 23rd year at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, MoMA’s Doc Fortnight ran from February 22 through March 7 and presented recent documentary features and short films from new and established artists. As in past editions, Doc Fortnight focused on innovative, experimental, and adventurous filmmaking approaches. The 2024 program included 13 features, six short films, three special seminars on Caribbean productions, landscape films, and a spotlight on Gelare Khoshgozaran, an interdisciplinary Iranian artist working with images of imperial violence now living in Los Angeles.  Except for three world premieres, all of the features had been screened before at international film festivals with numerous global award winning films and debuts. Four films were New York premieres, and nine North American premieres. Doc Fortnight provides a unique opportunity to see films which would likely not be accessible otherwise. The productions selected mirrored a broad spectrum of themes that included, among others, the use of cinema  production for community building in Guinea-Bissau “Resonance Spiral” 2024  Portugal/ Guinea-Bissau, Germany;  observational witness accounts of the Taliban’s rise to power in “Hollywoodgate” 2023, Germany/USA; environmental issues as reflected in the flood of electronic waste in “The New Ruins” 2024, Argentine; interactions between a volcano’s activities and those living under them on “Monism”, 2023 Indonesia/Qatar; a docufictional presentation of the legal absurdities of the emerging city state of Singapore through the fate of one female victim in “Small Hours of the Night”, 2024, Singapore; and Chinese youth locked between despair and hope in “Republic”, 2023, Singapore/China. As suggested by Fortnight’s associate curator Sophie Cavoulacos, “In a moment of continued geopolitical crises, the filmmakers shine a light on individuals confronting systems of power, all the while pushing the field in aesthetically daring new directions”, as evidenced by the documentaries “Silence of Reason”, Bosnia, 2023 and “ Black Box  Diaries”,  France 2024  which are discussed below. The large number of six co-productions selected reflects an international trend. Among sole producing countries were the USA with 3 films and with one production each China, France, Singapore, Indonesia, Argentine and Bosnia. The UK, Quatar, Germany, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, Belgium, Netherlands, and Finland were partners in co-productions.

SILENCE OF REASON by Kumjana Novakova, produced in 2023, is an extraordinary documentary about mass rapes and ethnic cleansing committed by the Serbian military in and around Foca after they occupied that area, inhabited by a majority of Muslims. Of the 22,500 Muslim residents, only ten were left there at the end of the two-year Bosnian war conflict which lasted from April 1992 to January 1992. The other inhabitants fled, disappeared or were killed. Novakova provides no commentary apart from quoting Hanna Arendt’s request to de-mythologize horrible crimes and relate to them as factual reality-based episodes. Organized mass rape is not a “normal” spoil of war earned by combatants; it is a war crime against humanity. The International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia (ICTY) established in its verdicts the guilt of Serbian military leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Silence of Reason succeeds in establishing the consequence of individuals apparently suspending reason and moral considerations and instead embracing organized mass rape as a normal activity. Novakova provides a complete listing of her sources derived from the archives of ICTV, without identifying the individual women quoted who remain anonymous following effective screenings in Silence of Reason. In the images Foca and its surroundings recorded by lay people before and during the occupation by Serbs there is footage of the venues of rape and torture ranging from motels, schools, military installations and the 0outside of residences where crimes took place. They are mostly empty and very few males can be observed in the background. Direct quotes from trial testimony is shown in black and white with the witnesses identified by numbers and a few by initials. The extent of the multiple organized rapes described defies imagination. Officers actively participated and advised their soldiers that they earned the sex because of their bravery. All age groups were among the victims with rapes carried out individually and in groups, some of the enslaved women were traded and sold, others kept in soldiers’ homes as submissive servants. Only a few escaped. These anonymous detailed verbal testimonies conveyed the power of language and left a more poignant impact than the other parts of the documentary. Reflection for viewers continued after leaving the screening.

World premiering this year at Sundance, the 2024 Japanese documentary feature BLACK BOX DIARIES by Shiori Itō belongs to the elusive group of productions which have had true real world impart. As a curator for a special program ‘Documentaries with an Impact’ at The Mexican Expression en Corto film festival, I found it difficult to identify each year relevant documentaries with a real impact. Shiori Itō’s work would unquestionably meet the relevant impact criteria. Her film and the 2017 book Black Box started the Japanese # MeToo movement and led to the conviction of her rapist, a high ranking Japanese TV Reporter. When her struggle for justice started, she had been sexually assaulted at the age of 26. She confronted a very conservative Japanese legal system with archaic laws about assaults. The common provision in Western society that absence of consent creates rape conditions was not part of the Japanese legal framework. Because of Itō’s efforts, it now is. Political interference in legal proceedings in Japan are frequent, though Itō does not emphasize it. There were no specific provisions for the protection of women and woman’s rights had no secure status, let alone that sexual transgressions were not openly discussed until Itō brought the issues into the light by sharing her story and filming herself with complete honesty, in her directorial debut.  Her perspective ran counter to the generally shared conviction to protect men’s honor. Itō openly depicts her personal case, her numerous legal encounters, and offers a cogent analysis of the masculine domination of contemporary Japan. Because of the shift of her case from a criminal to a civil venue, Itō eventually overcame the obstacles of the Japanese criminal justice system created by its officials. She also braved opposition from her family and media colleagues. She was able to find a publisher for her book Black Box. Before the shift of her suit to the civil court system, prior arrest warrants for the rapist had been voided, investigations terminated, and a review court ruled that she had no case. Revealing all details in her book, it turned out that the rapist was prominent journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi. He is the biographer of  prime minister Shinzo Abe and his close friend, and the former chief of the Washington office of  Japan’s Tok System Inc.  When questioned Abe refused to answer any inquiries about their friendship and Itō’s case. During a diner with Itō, Yamaguchi got her excessively intoxicated and took her by taxi to his hotel to have sex. A doorman from the hotel testified that he helped Itō get out of the cab and observed how Yamaguchi dragged her to the hotel. Yamaguchi denied all the charges, but a top court determined that he was guilty of sexual intercourse without consent, confirming a lower court guilty verdict. Itō stated that she was raped while unconscious.  But the court also ruled that  Itō’s claim in her book of having been drugged by him was not credible and imposed on her a financial fine after Yamaguchi  had sued Itō for defamation. It took Ito  five years to get justice.

Principal sponsor of Film at MoMA and Doc Fortnight is CHANEL with support provided by Debra and Leon D. Black, the Tria Foundation, and Jo Carole and Ronald D. Lauder, and other donors.

Claus Mueller. New York    filmexchange@gmail.com