Join Meaningful Movies in Kirkland and Mt. Baker Meaningful Movies for a pre-premier screening of WRITING WITH FIRE, the first Indian documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award, also winning the Audience Award and Impact for Change Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Join us for this screening before it appears for the Academy Awards March 27th. This event is supported by Mt. Baker Meaningful Movies Group, Indie Lens Pop-Up and ITVS.

As an all-women endeavor, Khabar Lahariya must many times butt up with the male dominated world of media, but if the more than ten million YouTube views have anything to say about it, they are making great headway. Armed with only smart phones, they’ve captured the hearts of readers, viewers, India, and the world. “In this region, a Dalit woman journalist was unimaginable. Over the last 14 years, we’ve changed this perception.” 

“Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” (Henry Anatole Grunwald)

“Khabar Lahariya is the country’s only women-run brand of digital first rural news reaching 3,00,000 people a month. We are a network of 18 women reporters in 12 districts of Bundhelkhand. We report on local governance issues and rigorously monitor the implementation of schemes for the rural poor. In areas that are completely out of the spotlight of media attention, it has become a local watch dog and a weapon of the weak.” (From the YouTube site)

Joining us for our discussion will be freelance journalist Kamna Shastri, a graduate and former mentor of RadioActive on KUOW. Besides her work in journalism she has been the Program Manager for the Tasveer Film Festival, a three-week festival that “…creates a lively, stimulating, and focused environment for conversation, education, and exploration of issues that face South Asia and its Diaspora.”

About the directors

Rintu Thomas is an award-winning director-producer, whose debut feature documentary, WRITING WITH FIRE, won two awards at Sundance ’21 and is a NYT Critics Pick. A 2021 IDA Courage Under Fire Award honoree, Rintu is also an IDA Logan Elevate grantee and a Sundance Fellow.

Sushmit Ghosh is an award-winning director, cinematographer who co-founded Black Ticket Films, a film company invested in the power of storytelling. Sushmit’s debut feature documentary, WRITING WITH FIRE, is a double Sundance award winner. Sushmit is a 2021 IDA Courage Under Fire Award Honoree and a Sundance Fellow.

Registration

Please register at this link and the event link will be returned by email:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-with-fire-film-showing-and-discussion-tickets-273674195887

The movie will be shown online using the OVEE platform. At the conclusion of the movie a community discussion on Zoom will follow. Links to both the movie and the discussion will be included in the email you receive after registration.

Schedule:

• 7:00 pm: Movie showing starts after 7:00 on OVEE
• 8:10 pm (approx.): Community discussion with special guest, journalist Kamna Shastri

More Information:

Film Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/writingwithfire.film/

Film description from PBS:
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/writing-with-fire/

OVEE user system test link (recommended prior to film showing):
https://ovee.itvs.org/diagnostics

Please contact us at mminkirkland@dsbarnes.com if you have any questions.