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    ‘While We Watched’ Review: India on the Brink

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    This documentary about the veteran broadcast journalist Ravish Kumar is less an inspiring tale than a wake-up call for India.In the opening moments of Vinay Shukla’s documentary “While We Watched,” its subject, the veteran Indian news anchor Ravish Kumar, stands in a partly demolished building and wonders, “When you find yourself all alone, whom do you listen to?”For one of the few high-profile journalists in India who has dared to speak truth to power — undeterred by falling ratings, death threats and a government increasingly hostile to a free press — this is nothing less than an existential crisis. What, indeed, does a journalist committed to being the voice of the people do when it seems he might be talking just to himself?“While We Watched” follows Kumar at his job at NDTV, an influential cable TV station, from 2018 to 2021 (a year before it was acquired in a hostile takeover by a billionaire). The documentary is less an inspiring tale than a sobering wake-up call. The camera stays close to Kumar’s face, which wears a crumpled look of resignation as he and his underfunded team strive to reaffirm democratic ideals amid a storm of rabble-rousing rhetoric from competing media outlets that demonize dissent and stoke Islamophobia. The movie unfolds like an episode of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” with brisk edits immersing us in the high-stakes, fast-paced and low-reward realm of independent news.Kumar is the voice of reason to many Indians; to see him so vulnerable is unsettling, though it makes his persistence all the more impressive. Shukla is a little too enamored of his subject, so that political and bureaucratic details fade into a somewhat monotonous, stylized tale of man against world. Yet Kumar’s humility and eloquence ensure that the film never slips into hagiography — instead, it lingers as a lament and a battle cry.While We WatchedNot rated. In English and Hindi, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Endangered’ Review: When Journalism Becomes Imperiled

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      A new documentary from Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady explores threats to press freedom, but not with the focus this global issue deserves.Shot in 2020 and 2021, “Endangered,” the latest documentary from Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (“Detropia”), explores a variety of threats to the freedom of the press across three countries.In Brazil, the writer Patrícia Campos Mello became the target of a barrage of sexist attacks — in one news clip President Jair Bolsonaro implies she was willing to trade sex for a scoop — after she reported on a disinformation campaign during the 2018 presidential election cycle. Campos Mello successfully sued the president and his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, also a politician, for “moral damages.”In Mexico, where, a title card says, more than 100 journalists have been murdered since 2000, the photographer Sáshenka Gutiérrez risks her safety to document protests against what critics see as an insufficient government response to a rise in femicides — girls and women being killed because of their gender.In the United States, Carl Juste, a longtime photojournalist for The Miami Herald, shoots the area’s George Floyd protests; he speaks about his father, who introduced him to journalism, and wonders if his own career is coming to a close. The British reporter Oliver Laughland documents the 2020 presidential campaign for The Guardian and encounters distrust for the news media from Trump supporters. There are also brief sections that concern the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organization based in New York.“Endangered” spreads itself thin over 90 minutes, leaving even basic points, such as what laws protect journalists in Brazil and Mexico, mostly unaddressed. Covered in isolation, any of these interview subjects, or any of the problems facing journalists raised — online harassment, police intimidation, hedge fund ownership of newspapers, news deserts — might have made for a more detailed and compelling film.EndangeredNot rated. In English, Portuguese and Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on HBO platforms. More

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      ‘Writing With Fire’ Review: Speaking Truth to Power

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      This rousing documentary follows the reporters of India’s only all-women news outlet as they pivot to digital journalism while battling personal and political challenges.Several times in the documentary “Writing With Fire,” we see women reporters standing alone in a crowd of men — cops, miners, political rallyists — asking gentle but firm questions. The women’s grit in the face of palpable hostility is impressive, and it becomes more so when you learn that they’re in Uttar Pradesh, an Indian province known for crimes against women, and that they are Dalits, or members of the country’s so-called untouchable caste.These are the reporters of Khabar Lahariya, India’s only women-led newspaper. In “Writing With Fire,” the directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh follow the outlet’s pivot to digital coverage in the lead-up to the general election in 2019. Many of the women have never used smartphones or cameras, and for much of the film, the reporters train each other and exchange feedback in heartening displays of sororal solidarity.Scenes from the reporters’ home lives emphasize how trivial these technical challenges seem compared to domestic ones. Meera, a veteran, tough-as-a-nut journalist, was married at 14 and earned three degrees while raising her children; the feisty Suneeta cannot get married because her parents can’t afford the dowries charged by men who would allow her to work.But Thomas and Ghosh focus on arcs of resistance rather than repression, tracing how, as Khabar Lahariya’s YouTube channel rapidly gains followers, its stories achieve real results: a neglected town receives medical attention; a rapist is prosecuted. If the film’s brisk telling sometimes presents these victories as too easily won, it’s a necessary corrective to the skepticism the women still face (“They’re destined to fail,” Meera’s husband scoffs).And at a time when the profession faces increasing dangers in India, the film’s faith in the powers of grassroots journalism is nothing short of galvanizing.Writing With FireNot rated. In Hindi, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters. More