The documentary Writing With Fire, which follows the story of the newspaper Khabar Lahariya and the team behind it, was nominated for an Academy Award. The Khabar Lahariya team has now issued a statement that the documentary only captures a part of their story and 'part stories have a way of distorting the whole sometimes'.
The statement read, "The film is a moving and powerful document, but its presentation of Khabar Lahariya as an organisation with a particular and consuming focus of reporting on one party and the mobilisation around this, is inaccurate."
"We recognise the prerogative of independent filmmakers to present the story that they choose to, but we would like to say that this eclipses the kind of work and the kind of local journalism we have done for twenty years, the reason we are different from other mainstream media of our times," the team said.
The statement further read that the Khabar Lahariya team has always tried to be 'deliberate about how and who' they include in their story and have been mindful of different perspectives.
Adding that their newsroom has consisted of women of differing ideologies over the years, the team stated, "In 20 years, we have reported on (and befriended) many parties in Uttar Pradesh that have said they will stand for the rights of the poor, the marginalized, and we have shown them all the mirror when they have not done what they said."
'Have Forged Complex Friendships': The Real Khabar Lahariya Story
The statement added that their story hasn't been the 'easy-to-digest heartwarming story of the small figure talking back to the big powers'.
The team revealed that they've been unsure about the future of the organisation in the past 20 years- would they continue to grow because of their quality of journalism or would they have to close shop because they didn't seem 'viable'?
Khabar Lahariya's statement also talked about their 'real story'. "20 years of arguing down resistant family members of our reporters – who couldn’t make up their mind if a paycheck or a hold over ‘their’ women was more important to them," the statement said.
It also revealed that they've had to forge 'complex friendships' in press clubs, anganwadis, district magistrate's office and various political parties- the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the Ambedkar Samaj Party, the Bhim Army, and many more.
Talking about some of the stories they've told, the statement revealed, "20 years of reporting on violence against women, wading through mountains of FIRs, highlighting unreported cases, sitting outside postmortem rooms where families of murdered women put steep prices over dead bodies – in a final act of violence against the dead women."
'Have Had to be Discreet, Often Fearful': Khabar Lahariya Team
The team revealed that they still feel 'vulnerable' even as their story reaches the Oscars.
"We have not, as the film would have one believe, been able to carry our caste identities on our sleeves, with bravado and humour. We have had to be discreet, often fearful."Khabar Lahariya Team
"Even if we have written and reported from our particular caste identities, we have upheld the right to protect our families’ privacy, especially our children’s, who will come into these battles in their own ways," the statement read.
The documentary Writing With Fire has been directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh. The newspaper Khabar Lahariya is led by Dalit women and also has Muslim women, women from OBC, and upper caste women in the team. The documentary has been nominated for an Academy Award for 'Best Documentary Feature'.
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