Director at AFIN

Biography

Rionne McAvoy is a documentary filmmaker originally hailing from the Gold Coast in Australia. Now residing in Tokyo, Japan, for over 17 years, Rionne is fully bilingual in English and Japanese. Rionne grew up in South East Queensland, Australia, and at the age of 19 went to Japan for an 8 week karate training trip and fell in love with the country. Putting his IT university studies on hold and returning to Japan 1 year later on a working holiday visa, Rionne spent 18 months living and working in Japan, including spending the last 8 months living with a Japanese host family. Realizing the need to complete his college education, Rionne returned to Australia and enrolled in a full time Japanese language degree at Griffith University. In the middle of those studies, Rionne spent 1 year as an international exchange student at Seikei University. Upon graduation from Griffith, Rionne returned to Japan where he has lived ever since. A keen martial artist, Rionne has been in the Japanese film industry for over 10 years, often mixing his profession with that of his other profession - a professional wrestler under the ring name of Rionne Fujiwara. Rionne's debut documentary "The Ones Left Behind: The Plight of Single Mothers in Japan" has won numerous overseas film festival awards as it continues to be a shining light down the path of improving the living conditions for single parents in Japan, and around the world.