Premieres Monday, Sept. 4, 2023 on KPBS TV / PBS App
A timely depiction of a newsroom in crisis, "While We Watched" follows tormented journalist Ravish Kumar for two years as he battles a barrage of fake news, falling ratings and the resulting cutbacks. Are there viewers for fact-based analyses anymore? Will his show survive or become a swan song of reason - drowning out in sensationalism, misinformation, and ratings-driven editorial decisions?
No stranger to creating topically charged documentaries, Director 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.
The film 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.
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Premieres Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, and will be available to stream until Dec. 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.
Credits:
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. Co-presented with The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
“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.
