Writing with Fire

I have nothing but respect for these women journalists. I give them ten stars each and collectively for their courage and determination. Having said that, for me this documentary about them falls a bit short of what it should be under the circumstances There are two reasons I say this. One is that we don’t seem to see any passion in the interviews or filming, the excitement or outrage that must have driven them in the interviews.I get it; on one level they are professionals and they want that reflected in this film. But there must have been moments when they caught fire both as women and as journalists and let it all hang out. Mustn’t there? They matter of factly state they are in danger more than once, but it doesn’t necessarily feel real without more details or anecdotes. Also, a lot of events and stories are brought up here and, except for one case where we learn that after they released the story a rapist was arrested, we don’t really get to hear any follow-up to how the stories were received and what resulted from them (well, except for the periodic updates in the cumulative number of YouTube ‘hits,’ that is). So my hat is off to these brave journalists and I appreciate the production team making this documentary about them. I just think there were some lost opportunities along the way to improve the story.