Reporting from a social environment built to divide based on caste and gender, a fearless group of journalists maintain India’s only women-led news outlet. The women of Khabar Lahariya (‘Waves of News’), all from the Dalit (“untouchables”) caste, prepare to transition the newspaper from print to digital even though many of their reporters don’t have access to electricity at home. Armed with smartphones, Chief Reporter Meera and her team of investigative journalists confront some of India’s biggest issues – exposing the relentless discrimination against women and amplifying the voices of those who suffer from the oppressive caste system.
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Video Quality
Writing With Fire comes to DVD with an excellent 480p transfer that presents the movie really well. This film consists mostly of newly-captured real-time footage plus some talking-head interviews which provide different levels of visual quality. The composed interviews look better than the inconsistent lighting that comes from following these women place to place during their reporting. Overall, the quality seems to be derived from the best elements available. Skin tones look natural and details hold up fairly well. Colors are a bit flat and black levels are subject to some crush and compression artifacting in the darkest environments. The image is a bit soft in certain situations with noticeable haziness under less favorable scenarios. This may not be a high definition presentation, but the image is very strong and quite pleasing given the format limitations.
Audio Quality
The DVD comes with both a Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 track that does everything it needs to do well. The film is presented with English subtitles to accompany the original Hindi dialogue spoken in the film. Dialogue is pretty consistently clear throughout with only occasional moments where sounds from the environment muddle the clarity of the subject’s words. Surround speakers add a bit of texture to the proceedings, mostly in the form of musical cues and crowd chatter. This track appears to be free from any damage or other issues that would lessen your enjoyment. This presentation is about as good as the source material and format will allow.
Special Features
- Firemaking – The Making Of Writing With Fire: A terrific 31-minute conversation with filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh in which they discuss getting introduced to this story, their initial meeting with the subjects, the wealth of stories they had to choose from with all the women, the personalities of the main subjects, the effects of the caste system on their growth, how the women work to lift each other up, the history of the location featured in the film, the approach that these women had to journalism, the relationship they had with the subjects, the film’s release and more. If you enjoy the film, do not skip this.
- Filmmaker Q&A From The Doc NYC Premiere: A 17-minute Q&A conducted on November 11, 2021 in which filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh discuss the access they had to the subjects, the differences in perspective they had with their subjects, the style of the filmmaking, the editing process, trying to capture undiluted reality and more that really complements the movie quite well.
- Theatrical Trailer: The two-and-a-half minute trailer is provided here.
Final Thoughts
Writing With Fire is a terrific portrait of women banding together to do more with their lives than their society has conditioned them to aspire to do. Not only do you get a chance to see the power that an independent news source can wield for the good, but you are allowed insight into each of these women and the obstacles they face in their daily lives. Music Box Films has released a DVD with a very strong A/V presentation that gets the job done. This is truly one of the most rousing documentaries to come out in the past year, and it deserves your attention. Highly Recommended
Writing With Fire is currently available to purchase on DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the DVD.
Disclaimer: Music Box Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
