Oscar nomination for film about India all-women news team that reports on lowest caste and rural poor
- Writing with Fire, about the pioneering women behind the online news outlet Khabar Lahariya, was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category
- The crusading team, which reports about the hardships and violence faced by lower caste communities, was started by a group of women 20 years ago
The pioneering team at an all-women, rural news organisation in northern India say they are ecstatic after a documentary film on their crusading reporting, especially around the hardships faced by lower caste communities, won an Oscar nomination on Tuesday.
Writing with Fire, a 93-minute film about the women behind the online news outlet Khabar Lahariya – meaning “News Waves” in Hindi – was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category for this year’s Academy Awards.
“I am so happy. But I can’t express it well,” Meera Devi, a reporter with Khabar Lahariya told Reuters by telephone while she was out reporting on local elections in India’s most populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which is where the news outlet is based.
Devi features prominently in the documentary, wading through fields, hitching a bike ride along potholed roads, and recording smartphone videos of villagers as they narrate their issues.
Started by a group of women 20 years ago, Khabar Lahariya focuses on women’s and local issues in rural Uttar Pradesh, a land where caste fault lines are sharply drawn and violence against lower-castes is common.
