'Writing with Fire' awarded for showing stories of intrepid journalism

It tracks the rise of Khabar Lahariya, India's only newspaper run by Dalit women

Writing-With-Fire

At a time when freedom of speech is curtailed in unforeseen ways, a debut documentary on the intrepid journey of a publication run entirely by women from the heart of Uttar Pradesh has won two awards at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, which concluded on February 3. Made by husband-wife duo Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, 'Writing with Fire' tracks the rise of Khabar Lahariya, India's only newspaper run by Dalit women, covering everything from crime and politics to social justice, gender violence and entertainment. It went on to win the audience award in the World Cinema Documentary category, apart from a Special Jury Award for Impact for Change at the virtual edition of the festival, usually held at Park City, Utah in the United States.

With the accolades have come fulsome praise from international media for the way the incredible story of the news collective has been handled—without casting them as victims who need to be rescued or patronised. The filmmakers, over a period of five years, capture how the media venture transitions into the digital space and their struggles with technology, following the lives of three reporters as they rove and report with their mobile phones in a deeply misogynistic milieu and how their audience snowballs from thousands to millions. “This cannot be a victim story because whenever you hear ‘Dalit,’ more often than not, it’s either going to be a caricature or a victim,” Ghosh told Variety. “And for us, Meera (chief reporter) and all the journalists, they embody a sense of power that Indians and the world need to witness. Because I believe that they’re showing us new ways of looking at an old world.”

Khabar Lahariya was founded as an 8-page weekly in 2002 at Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh and was first produced in the local Bundeli dialect of Hindi. In 2013, it migrated online to bring stories from rural Uttar Pradesh. While women in the documentary fight intractable gender stereotypes in their daily work, their commitment to newsgathering and persistence for justice have the most impactful results. "Attacks on the press are not new, but the threats faced by journalists in democracies have rarely, if ever, been as extreme as they are right now. 'Writing With Fire' reminds us that there are always people who, despite incredible odds, will choose to do this work," wrote The Washington Post.

"For Meera and her compatriots, journalism, democracy, and justice are linked, and it’s why they are called to work that is dangerous, difficult, and often nearly impossible," writes Indiewire, giving it a grade of 'B+' , pointing out the lack of enough context in terms of its origin story. Khabar Lahariya was founded as an 8-page weekly in 2002 in Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh.

The first murmurings of an Oscar buzz are usually generated at Sundance where big-game Hollywood films rub shoulders with bright, exciting, independent productions. Aside from being a networking paradise and a rocket launcher for new talent, it brings to the fore cutting-edge technologies from the world of film and media. 

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