Film on Smartphone-Armed Marginalized Indian Women Journalists in Oscar Race
A documentary about Khabar Lahariya has been nominated for an Oscar in the best documentary feature category.
(Bloomberg) -- A documentary about Khabar Lahariya, a news-platform run by women from India’s Dalit group has been nominated for an Oscar in the best documentary feature category, highlighting the challenges faced by the most marginalized group in Hinduism’s complex caste hierarchy.
The film “Writing With Fire” chronicles the shift of the decade-old local language newspaper based in central India going digital in 2015-16.
“They are the coolest women I have met, most hadn’t handled a smart phone but were taking a leap of faith,” said Rintu Thomas, one of the two film makers. “The film was shot over five years.”
The 32 member all-women news crew works in the Bundelkhand region -- that sits between the Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh -- the country’s most populous states. Despite the challenges of gender and caste, the team reports in the local dialects on issues like rural health, forest and water conservation, discrimination, the spread of the pandemic and even Afghanistan.
The journalists declined to comment. Their news portal earlier congratulated the directors of the documentary in a tweet, saying they were “encouraged to further our women-led grassroots media revolution” with the Oscar nomination.
The reporters and editors also include women from other minority groups like Muslims and local tribal communities. Several of the women were forced into marriage as teenagers and later finished their school education and were trained as journalists.
The prestigious Oscar nomination of a film about the women is in stark contrast to their standing in Indian society, where as women from some of the most disadvantaged groups, their voices can often go unheard.
As journalists too, they face exceptional challenges. India is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2021 World Press Freedom Index. Journalists are “exposed to every kind of attack, including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials,” according to the report.
Khabar Lahariya’s going digital coincided with the explosion of social media in India. While that increased their reach, it took away the relative anonymity of a local print newspaper and the women have had to negotiate another hurdle -- social media trolls, stalkers and threats.
“Imagine being a woman in these parts of India, and then try and imagine being journalist,” said Sushmit Ghose, who co-directed the film. “As the cyber-world was colliding with caste and patriarchy, you had woman from the Dalit or Muslim community armed with a cheap Chinese-made mobile phone shining the light on society.”
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