Writing with Fire(2021)
dir. Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh
Dalit women run their own newspaper. On smartphones.
Where to watch: Free: Fandango At Home, YouTube and Plex (with ads), Kanopy and Hoopla (library card); subscription Prime Video, OVID; rent $3.99 on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango At Home (JustWatch US, checked 2026-11-03). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
Khabar Lahariya is a newspaper run by Dalit women in rural India, and it is switching from print to digital. The film follows its reporters as they go after stories about police, rape cases and illegal mining, with a smartphone in a country that has told them not to ask questions. It was nominated for an Oscar.
Why it’s here
It shows journalism done by the people the story is usually about. What's punk is the reporters: Dalit women who built their own press when nobody would hire them. What's pedagogical is the craft, from getting the source to checking the quote, and the cost of doing it. Pairs with Annihilation of Caste, Ants Among Elephants and Jai Bhim (suggested 11-03). Note: includes scenes of violence against women described and discussed, and the film's rising-Hindu-nationalism subplot is shown, not argued.
Where This Film Lives
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
Christopher Alexander et al.
253 patterns for designing a place people can live in.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice
Jessica Gordon Nembhard
The Black co-ops history forgot to teach.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
Carla Bergman & Nick Montgomery
Resistance that doesn't burn everyone out.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage
Paulo Freire
Freire's last word: teaching is an act of courage.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Abi Daré
A Nigerian girl teaches herself to be heard.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Kids fight on TV so the districts stay quiet.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Donella H. Meadows
Why systems resist change, and where to push.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)
Susan D. Blum (ed.)
Teachers who stopped grading, and what happened.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST