Oscar-nominated documentary Writing With Fire wins Peabody Award

Rintu Thomas and Sishmit Ghosh’s Oscar-nominated documentary Writing With Fire won the Peabody Award in the Documentary category recently. The documentary is about the only Dalit-women-led newspaper in the country: Khabar Lahariya and their shift to digital journalism after 14 years of print.

Taking to Instagram to announce the news, the official handle of the film wrote in the caption: "We picked up India’s first Peabody! For 80+ years, @Peabodywards has celebrated #StoriesThatMatter and reflected the world around us. A privilege to be recognized amongst this tremendous class of storytelling excellence!"

The Peabody announced the 35 winners for the year 2022 on Wednesday. Writing with Fire was awarded in the Documentary category. The official citation of the Peabody Awards read, “The fearless journalists of India’s only all-female newspaper redefine traditional notions of power in Writing With Fire, a gripping film from Independent Lens about the intrepid team behind the success of the news outlet Khabar Lahariya.”

"The women risk it all in a male-dominated media landscape to cover stories of violence against women, municipal corruption, and religious separatism in rural regions that still don’t recognize them as equals, let alone bonafide journalists. But their passion and bravery in the face of gender and class bias drive this beautifully shot documentary from directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh. The filmmakers follow this ambitious group of Dalit, or ‘low-caste,’ women as they pivot from print to digital in order to expand their publication’s reach from an underground news network to an independent media empire. Khabar Lahariya’s YouTube site now has over 10 million views. For highlighting the awe-inspiring efforts of these courageous female reporters on the front lines of India’s leading issues and for its inspiring embodiment of tenacious, local journalism, Peabody honours Independent Lens: Writing with Fire."

Writing With Fire was the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Apart from this, it has also won accolades at Belfast Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival among others.