Communiqué
A timely depiction of a newsroom in crisis, “While We Watched” on POV – September 4 at 10 pm
< < Back toPOV Presents a Dramatic Chronicle of a Newsroom in Crisis with
‘While We Watched’
Monday, September 4 at 10 pm
Following its award winning festival run, While We Watched directed by Vinay Shukla (An Insignificant Man) and produced by Luke W. Moody (founding producer, Lono Studio) and Khushboo Ranka (co-director, producer, An Insignificant Man), will make its national broadcast premiere on Monday, September 4, 2023 at 10pm ET and will be available to stream until December 3, 2023 at pbs.org, and the PBS App. In addition to standard closed captioning for the film, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.
Now in its historic 36th season, POV continues to share bold, visionary stories as America’s longest running non-fiction series with Vinay Skukla’s timely look at the increasing threats to independent journalism and the public’s trust in news.
While We Watched made its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival where it won the Amplify Voices award and the Cinephile award at the Busan Film Festival. It went on to win the international competition at Helsinki’s DocPoint Festival and will have its U.S. theatrical debut in July. Shukla’s film is essential viewing for those interested in understanding the urgency and complexity of this critical moment for independent journalists and the global news media landscape in an era of rampant misinformation.
No stranger to creating topically charged documentaries, Vinay Shukla has described his film as an “angry and anxious love letter to journalism.” While We Watched offers an unfiltered look inside the nerve center of NDTV, once the bastion of truth for India’s network news, now spiraling downward in a wave of fake news, financial setbacks, growing nationalism and extremist attacks on truth.
While We Watched captures the energy of the newsroom, the inherent drama of reportage, and presents the human side of journalism, with an intimate look at one of India’s most celebrated journalists, Ravish Kumar, known for questioning those in power, often at his own peril. As the public discourse morphs into polarized bombast, Kumar and his colleagues struggle to compete within India’s vastly deteriorating news media industry.
While We Watched director Vinay Shukla said “A very long time ago, a very young version of me used to google POV documentaries and read their synopsis in awe. POV helped me discover Laura Poitras’ The Oath & Geoffrey Smith’s The English Surgeon. I felt the power of documentaries and I wrote fan mails to these filmmakers. To be here now and have my own film release on POV is quite unexpected for me. I am grateful. I hope my film does for somebody what Laura & Geoffrey’s film did for me.”
“In a time of fake news, misinformation and zealous political punditry, Vinay’s film is an urgent appeal to defend our independent journalists. The emotional stakes run high in this intimate look at embattled broadcast anchor, Ravish Kumar. Through the process of news-making we witness his struggle and, in equal measure, his commitment to journalistic integrity in a landscape where truth and fact are routinely distorted,” said POV executive producer Chris White.
While We Watched is a Lono Studio, Britdoc Films, and American Documentary | POV co-production. Vinay Shukla is the director. The producers are Luke W. Moody and Khushboo Ranka. Executive Producers are Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary | POV.