Fresh off its Academy Award®-nomination earlier this month, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh‘s Writing with Fire will make its television debut on PBS’s INDEPENDENT LENS on March 28, 2022, at 10:00 p.m. ET. The film will also be available to stream on the PBS Video app.
Its INDEPENDENT LENS premiere comes the day after the 94th Academy Awards® on Sunday, March 27, 2022 for which it has been nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.
In the midst of a crowded, patriarchal news landscape, the reporters with Khabar Lahariya— India’s only newspaper run by Dalit (“low caste”) women—take it upon themselves to cover their country’s inequities with unflinching determination. Armed only with their smartphones, these fearless journalists traverse the state of Uttar Pradesh, exposing government misconduct, rape culture, and rampant corruption that victimizes those without voice or power. Led by chief reporter Meera Devi, they investigate the incompetence of the local police force, listen to and stand by victims of caste and gender violence, and challenge long-standing, harmful practices that lead to injustice and intimidation.
Writing with Fire follows this ambitious group of Dalit women, focusing on staff reporters Suneeta Prajapati and Shyamkali Devi, in addition to Meera Devi, as they transition from print to digital in order to stay relevant, and learn to harness the power of online media to grow their audience far beyond the confines of their social standing. Filmmakers Thomas and Ghosh journey with the women as they travel around rural India to report on abuses of patriarchy and government malfeasance, their efforts taking them into people’s homes, police offices, the frontlines of major government elections, and more.
Writing with Fire had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2021, where it was a double award winner, scooping up both the World Cinema Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Impact for Change. The film was a favorite on the festival circuit, picking up additional awards at San Francisco Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, Washington D.C. Filmfest, Belfast Film Festival, International Human Rights Film Festival, and more.