The Indian documentary Writing With Fire, directed by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, which chronicles the story of the all women-run organisation Khabar Lahariya, has been nominated for an Oscar under the ‘Best Documentary Feature’ category. Khabar Lahariya is India’s only newspaper run completely by Dalit women with their chief reporter Meera leading them.
Thomas posted a video of herself and her family reacting to the Oscar nomination on Tuesday evening.
Writing With Fire follows the team as they adapt their paper to the digital space from print. The documentary won the Special Jury (Impact for Change) and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.
The Khabar Lahariya Story
Khabar Lahariya was launched in 2002 by the Nirantar Trust and co-founded by Kavita from Uttar Pradesh. The paper, then a fortnightly publication, was run by a team of six women who wrote in Bundeli and Hindi.
In 2004, the paper won the Chameli Devi Jain Award which recognises stellar women journalists in the country. The newspaper was supported by the Dorabji Tata Trust and the United Nations Democracy and Equity Fund.
Since its inception, the team of Khabar Lahariya have focused on issues like violence against women and other minorities and administation inadequacies and incompetence.
Who Is ‘Writing With Fire’ Up Against?
The other documentaries nominated in the category along with Writing With Fire are Ascension, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Attica, and Flee.
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