India's 'Writing with Fire' loses to 'Summer of Soul' in documentary feature Oscar category

"Writing with Fire", directed by debutants Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, was considered a dark horse in the Oscars race with its feel-good story of Khabar Lahariya, India's only newspaper run by Dalit women

"Writing With Fire", the Indian documentary that chronicled the rise of a newspaper run by Dalit women, lost to "Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)" in the best documentary feature category at the 94th edition of the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest awards ceremony.

"Summer Of Soul" is directed by the Roots frontman Ahmir Thompson, best known by his stage name Questlove.

For the film, Mr. Thompson arranged the never-seen-before archival footage of the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity, attended by 300,000 people in the summer of 1969.

The "stunning" win of the movie was about "the marginalised people in Harlem that needed to heal from pain", he said.

"It's not lost on me that the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival should have been something that my beautiful mother and my dad should have taken me to when I was five years old," Mr. Thompson added.

Overcome by emotion, the musician said Black cultural institutions and expressions are still ignored in contemporary pop culture.