Toru Kubota (b.1996) is a documentary filmmaker based in Tokyo who approaches filmmaking as a participatory practice, seeking to open spaces of freedom through collaboration with the people he films. While studying Political Science at Keio University, he began documenting conditions in Rohingya camps in western Myanmar. This experience led him to create films with and for people deprived of their freedoms. He later worked with BBC, NHK World, and Al Jazeera English.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he co-founded a film collective that documented marginalized voices across Tokyo while organizing online donations and public campaigns. This initiative led to the co-directed documentary Tokyo Ritornello (NHK BS, 2020), an experience that further shaped his view of filmmaking as a participatory social practice.

In July 2022, he was detained while filming under Myanmar’s military regime and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released after 111 days following international pressure. After his release, he relocated to the Thai–Myanmar border, where he directed the television documentary Resisters in Borderland (NHK, 2024), which received the ATP Best New Director Award. Alongside his filmmaking, he founded Docu Athan Square, a media infrastructure supporting Myanmar creators and journalists working along the border. He is currently developing the feature documentary My Camera, My Gun, which received the top award at the 2025 Taiwan Creative Content Fest.