In 2002, a group of women in the state of Uttar Pradesh started a newspaper. They called it Khabar Lagariya (translated as “News Waves”). Everyone expected the project to be a small one, but Khabar Lagaria is thriving 20 years later. This exclusively women’s news outlet has a digital platform, an active Facebook page, and a YouTube channel (10 million views and growing). The women report on breaking news stories, all captured on their cell phones, as well as painstaking (and often dangerous) investigations into issues affecting their society: unsafe living and working conditions, political corruption, the epidemic of rape and violence, especially against Dalits. All of these reporters are Dalit women, a group considered so “untouchable” that they are not even part of the caste system. But Khabar Lagaria persists, even in the face of hostility and resistance from families, husbands, and relatives.

At the center of Writing with Fire is Meera, Khabar Lahariya’s chief reporter, who not only follows and reports on stories, but also oversees the paper’s transition to digital, and mentors young journalists (many of whom have no journalism experience). . Mira was married at 14, but her in-laws allowed her to continue her education. Now she has a master’s degree and is a working mother with a husband who still thinks (and hopes?) that Khabar Lagaria will fail. He is quite easy to talk to, but he is ashamed that his wife is out all night, that she works at all.

Journalism is a mostly male profession, and an upper-caste profession at that, so these women had (and still have) a very difficult path. Every time they enter a space, be it a village, a mine or a government building, they are surrounded by men. Some of the stories they cover are extremely sensitive. They literally risk their lives. Since 2014, more than 50 journalists have been killed in India, making India – along with Iraq, Mexico, the Philippines and Pakistan – one of the most dangerous places on the planet for journalists. This is even more true for women, and the Dalit reporter is unheard of. The men they interview often don’t know how to handle questioning little women holding cell phones, women who are not intimidated by condescension or hostility.

Thomas and Gosch’s approach is personal and intimate. There is no distance from the subject matter and the film follows the newspaper journalists as they cover various stories (a dangerous mine run by a “mining mafia”, an epidemic of rape of Dalit women, Dalit villages without sanitation, and bigger stories like important local elections with national implications). When the women talk to the camera, there is a sense of familiarity and openness that shows how deeply the filmmakers have entered the lives of their subjects. External pressure influences the work of women, and vice versa. Mira is not as much as she would like to be for her children. One is falling behind at school. Sunita is unmarried and wants to stay that way, although her parents feel pressure to do so.