Toronto International Film Festival: Vinay Shukla's documentary 'While We Watched' wins Amplify Voices Award

Ravish Kumar. Pic- TIFF

Filmmaker Vinay Shukla's documentary "While We Watched", featuring news anchor Ravish Kumar, has bagged an award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film, titled "Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar" in Hindi, won the Amplify Voices Award at the recently concluded film gala, the press release from the makers stated. Other winners of the Amplify Voices Award included Nisha Pahuja's "To Kill a Tiger" for best Canadian feature and Martika Ramirez Escobar's "Leonore Will Never Die".

"While We Watched" is described as a turbulent newsroom drama that intimately chronicles the working days of broadcast journalist Kumar as he navigates a spiralling world of truth and disinformation.

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"Through the lens of its protagonist - a man clinging onto integrity even as everything falls apart - 'While We Watched' urges the viewer to consider their own responsibility and culpability as news and media come under greater scrutiny than ever before, Vinay's upcoming film delivers the promise of a bold, timely, and globally relevant documentary," the official description read.

Shukla's debut feature "An Insignificant Man", chronicling the rise of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was also screened at the prestigious film festival in 2016. The filmmaker said journalists are the "foremost storytellers of our time".

"I spent two years in Ravish's newsroom, watching him build his daily broadcast. Ravish and his team would get some stories right, some stories just about. Watching him, I realized that for every report that we see on the news, the journalist behind the report pays a cost - an emotional, financial, ethical and mental cost.

"No story is easy, every story is personal. This film is about the personal cost that journalists pay to do their job right. My film would apply to any journalist who has stood their ground and chosen to file a story which was true to their beliefs. This film is my love letter to journalism," Shukla said in a statement.

"While We Watched" is a UK production and is produced by LONO Studio and BRITDOC Films.

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