‘Writing with Fire’, an Indian film chronicling the rise of Khabar Lahariya, India’s only newspaper run by women recently won the audience award in the World Cinema Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival 2021. Khabar Lahariya is being run since 2002 and was started by Delhi-based NGO Nirantar from Chitrakoot in Bundelkhand region. It is published across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in rural dialects of Hindi, including Bundeli and Awadhi.

The award ceremony, hosted virtually by actor-comic Patton Oswalt, also marks the feature debut of directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh. The film follows this ambitious group of Dalit women – led by their chief reporter, Meera – as the team switches from print to digital in order to stay relevant. It also follows the women investigating 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. The film won the special jury award: impact for change in the World Cinema Documentary category as well.

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