border since august and he's trying to be really been injured in a fire at a home for elderly people in the u.s. state of pennsylvania flames engulfed the complex and waste chester to the west of philadelphia it's not clear what caused the fire. those are the headlines the news will continue but first it is the stream. news has never been. but the message is a simplistic and misinformation is rife the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narrative at this time on al-jazeera. i am during the stream live on al-jazeera today with teaming up with our colleagues at witness to showcase the new film the snake charmer the documentary charts a journey of one of bollywood's biggest stars from the silver screen to social activism i'm ali could be taking your questions and comments to our guest live on the program on the snake charmer follows aamir khan on a journey through india's t.v. and film industry as he attempts to change the way indians perceive and treat women take a look. justices they. have. to eighty to one type. to be some of the. healthy towards women. and to change the. big schism and identities. where the actor and the person. but joining us now to do is director of the snake charmer and dr nick carr is assistant professor of journalism and communication at the inmarsat university of broda russia kumah is a freelance multimedia journalist. who decide is a filmmaker and journalist ladies it's great to have you here this film this access you had i'm just looking to construct a feat he has twenty two point three million followers he is a huge hollywood star how did you even get close enough to him to put him in a documentary. so you know at the moment and you know we at the moment we can't hear you very well so i'm going to just work behind the scenes to come back to you and just get your audio in place let me just go to russia russia as we're looking at this documentary the snake charmer and this huge indian bollywood star when you look at it what do you see. i watched the film about twelve hours ago and one of my first reactions was why make the film. and why if you were if the idea was to look at how bollywood portray is women then it should have been a wider discussion than just looking at americans' portrayal of. americans involvement in said to me. you know it's a very specific sure which actually did not. i think answer about two or four seasons so that was my first question actually why this film and why look at gender portrayal in mainstream in the cinema through the eyes of the to me was that it had some extremely important points to make which i was delighted to see being made on screen but i was actually hoping for a wider perhaps look a broader look look at agenda portrayals at the trail of women in mainstream in the cinema rush let me see if i can get our con to actually answer this for you here's a little clip of him explaining the idea behind his discussion shall have a look. people make you feel good they make you love to make you cry they make you forget your stress give you a good time but that's not all the responsibility to procreate this person is also to bring. society to build the social fabric of the state to infuse models. well the film follows on as you saw there through the production of that television show this is commenting both on the film and the t.v. show themselves the film is beautifully pro-trade giving a balanced view and it showcases the very real struggle space by such a venture i loved the t.v. show i cried along with it even if one family has influence it's a step in the right direction she goes on to say and there is doing much more than just empowering women he's trying to change the mindset of people who've had an upbringing were women are not seen as equals or a burden so need i know you're back with us you hear this praise for the film is this part of the reason why you decided to follow on her in the first place. i think the story of the film of course. all of the. work but the real story stories of women in india and in her and the power are just one start to actually make change in a way. so i think it was well you know one person can. you know do something about it and you know if you think oh i have a daughter let me just you know think in a. different way and. or in a way that was not the right word but it you know i think helped a lot i think that's very very important i think what kind of mind and i know there's a lot of you know in india where you know what it's doing and what. your motivation was. why don't you. think you really wanted to make a community and i think. i think the other part and yet and you can see that. so meaningful is around i'm a con as he was making his the final final series of such him a day after day which means truth alone triumphs and to show his talk show highlights some very important issues in india let me give you one example this is parveen story have a look. so if you thought of that he kept them going to start us have you thought yeah. i don't want there but harvey love doesn't win if only. it does not survive without us or a psychiatrist medical muscular. that i love that he would love that agenda is not about me so no one knows that there could be useful people so. if you. but i worked on this talk show. it's difficult to separate him as an actor from the activism that he's trying to actually help people get access to helping people get access to what was he like to work with. well yes and that's kind of understandable in the sense that you know actors have this persona people relate to and then when you see him on the show visibly in a different way you wonder what's that you know you want to try to make that connect however of you know from the from the conversations we had and the research that went behind sure he was as he was on television as he was with us when he was you know discussing the stories of these women a lot of well i think doc went on behind about heart he cried on television and whether he did that on purpose whether it was something to just get the ratings up and well that's not against the person that he cries and he. you know the research meeting that we had as well so you know as far as the busyness concerned there are two different things but i think i would just like to go back to the actual point here i think that we're having two different conversations the conversation one being the portrayal of you know with i mean in the cinema and that's different and i think this conversation will be different which is the portrayal of women and the issues in india you know that the story we undertook so you know i think the two different guns asian they don't mean we should kind of mix these two together. let me just bring you back in here when you started on this journey with an icon you named the film the snake charmer a lot of people of questioned why you were doing that can you explain the title of the film. course the snake talking. what that what they need mum you're up in india. because he's our two who want. to really you know but it's me because bollywood stars and i have to just go back to. the challenges that i'm here to made everything seem so easy and very i think you know how i feel are perfect i had an interview. and i was on very. high and you know it's making things so you know for the record and i don't mind you know. that and we you know great for when you know you know there's something different that like this is how goes on every day. and then he got up and you know something to do that you know so he comes. in india. or another i mean that's not very well known and he doesn't really want to. so that i wanted to add go ahead i think there are you know the full monty refers to him as an activist an actor and activist i think that's a word that he going to shy away from and he's repeatedly said that he's an entertainer not an activist and this sure was not activism but a form of entertainment that kind of showed different paths it's off india and i do you make the distinction very clearly and you know. that would make every one of us an activist in that sense he's an act so on that point i hear you there pretty and i we got this comment live on you tube brad says people need to stop looking after them athletes as role models another person on twitter weighs in this is who says another kind is not an advocate for women but he gave respect and importance to women that is i opening for gender equality in india and at least he tried as an actor the i want to bring you in here via the phone do you think the t.v. show was an eye opener for many people. i thought any more of you but those of the day before i was the entire. that that when it was a bit and i believe that there are the four disarming always i think about what they did in fact that they made a big drag and they are hints that with the regard for issues like gender blindness the contradiction with blake he was i think the most i think they'd managed to score in the station insanity is actually that the fact that the shoe can dally if you would like to live in signs is a weekend you should not discuss and even how it's good because it was the popular after they've been to celebrate the show coming on the television the thing about the show is that these issues that we believe i think we want in fact was that there that the fact you brought the gun with patients into the house good and i think back in fact they really are a big step of a big contribution and i could mention it but i would really be skeptical about the fact that badly this sure has been a big visible in the just the change in the way in the way the un does always in the place leave. it in the media or guise that it's something that you have to be relieved and they would be there is some guidance with the magic research that the data as to what they would be that popular culture highest calling their gender age and the perceptions by the way we could be able to find out the impact of that the me gently but i know you believe that it's a big step because then you have an active grant was being followed by many people whose agree with more than one million weekly team just talking about these issues that in fact they are the one mind. moore one of the things that you captured. was the pushback the protests the criticisms at one point protesters even said well you should just leave the country let's have a look at a little bit from the documentary. now. yeah. you know i. was a kid. you know did you know what you were getting into cultural. well good. very diverse country in a difficult country to start in with it and a lot of time there in my experience very active. countries not a lot but i wanted to just go back to you know i think of the time to remember going to see and hear what the leverage the are and what we are but that we have to compare what i'm going to join with what for example george clooney is doing you know any you know he was complaining and you know you see you're not a summer company of the bar you know when you see a beer complaining or you know in this way this is his way to stand up for women's rights and for other you know human rights in the uk i mean half of the song has gone against his that's why we see here you know people and politicians in our country the great sensitivity issues in india and i think this is what you know you mean you know understanding when europe and i'm in india russia. yeah i just wanted to quickly add to the point of celebrity activism because that is really important there's actually very little celebrity activism if you will you know comparatively in india so if you only look at it in dorms of the really activism yes there's definitely had had kind of made inroads but then i guess the question one asks is with the mind of the kind of you know it had started one of the largest television channels. as grass in bollywood actor you had extremely good research teams and production teams so with that kind of might the short you know make the kind of impact that it originally set out to is probably a question one needs to just put out there and you know i mean it's difficult to quantify i'm sure nobody has numbers and nobody can assess the game of impact. but but it's a question one should ask so you ran maybe three or four seasons was there some kind of a policy shift that did something happen with all of the end of resources that was pumped into the show is probably a valid question to put out there. craig crawford i knew you were working on the show go ahead right yeah i think it's a valid question and i think a lot of people had that question as well what was the impact of the shore and given the resources and you know just to put it out there i think everybody all of us who are part of the team were kind of learning through the time the first second third season and learning about issues you know so we had our own personal growth in that sense but you know if if most of it cannot be quantified. but you know for example the of the episode on child sexual abuse soon after the episode was we got fourteen million responses from people. you know everywhere and we even compiled a booklet of you know some of the most poignant responses that we got. and of course you know in terms of we're not going to see that you know the short changed things in india because if you haven't change and be you know it's one of the many efforts that really takes in bringing port the momentum to going to build the change whether it is about creating child sexual abuse workshops in in schools whether it is popularizing the concept of generic medicines all of these kind of i think children of added to the momentum that many other factors in india did at that point in time to build conversations and pressure you know for governments to act for example even though the you know the health minister had a shot that i'm told me that this is a show that kind of inspired him and inspired him going to push him and you know do to conduct more leads on clinics that were doing sex elective abortions or going to you know crack down on those clinics so we've had anecdotal experiences but again we're not going to see that you know kind of change that. so there is one point here that several people are mentioning online and it is the industry itself whether that's media whether that's bollywood this is from nor is a former member of the stream team here right said keep in mind i'm a cancer early films glow. or fight harassment and violence against women we should critique the end of history he participated in so in doing that critique this is bollywood insists if it cannot comment but this one is a little bit wider this is from come law this is a big deal commonly got on the media in general in india this is what she sayd if media and media people. and humane gender sensitive and if they have passionate about equality justice and human rights for all. then they can promote gender equality and brought a positive image of women and. a positive image of men who are. kind and good to warn people. but if media all be passionate about. these. none of this can happen. pretty soon. what do you make about changing the media landscape. yes i completely agree with what dr busines just said if the if the media itself is not sensitive if it can if it has people who are not gender the gender sensitive where would those who do not understand gender justice then i'm sure the kind of output that they would have would necessarily be insensitive civically to women and other minorities however i just wanted to quickly respond to north point about aamir khan having me. earlier on in a scarier that didn't portray women in a good light i would like to point out the film ends on a note. of the film talks about done the which was his last release in the early sorry. not the last release but one of the last release dates. and end of the film talks about how he portrays you know portrayal of of them and then has changed in the middle but you know duncan also had some extremely valid criticism coming from feminists are saying that it was talking about. the girls from a very patriarchal perspective the father who can play is actually bushed his younger daughters into things that they did not really want to do so it's not just his not it's not just only a part of his career where he has been accused of not being very sensitive to the portrayal of women it's also much much recently i think bangor was two thousand and sixteen so. and it was much after the. snake so it's even until much recently and the snake democrats a is a very important point where in one of his. one of his most famous film studio stocks about rape in a very kind of a lighthearted almost joking way in a particular scene so i guess i guess i'm a imus critics would say that he. probably. you know continue to portray characters which fall into the larger. patriarchy and we just show our audience a little clip from and. you can see the genesis where the idea came from for a dog or dog was a film about female wrestlers a little. idea about what the plot but. have a look. if you think your comment please comment about gold medalists and. the opening with the. wrestling with the would be. molded a little gave a lot of. different and there's. a lot of. champions many. mahmoud you know this guy well. but you're going. to ask. the action the whole general road druther middle road look what a moderate than it is we're going to get a lot of what i just did but he wanted a closer look not again when you're. remodeling it when i get the other was a little deeper than when they were isn't it a little bit but when it only was. so good moment from the witness documentary coming online and shown on al-jazeera on the snake charmer have a look here my laptop this is where you can see it online. a couple of comments to you in this conversation the chat if you on you tube live says i agree that amr khan brought the conversation to homes where it can become an open conversation and sort of one held in private among women and a few men and one other comment from twitter this person says i am so empowered as a man by honor konstanz against an equal gender norms but i can't wait to see the film nina i need to. thank you very much for being in this conversation debating and discussing cod and also nina your documentary thanks for sharing that with us and for joining us on the stream today this conversation continues always online. a.j. string that's what. the at. the street is quiet the signal is given. out yet so it's safe to walk to school last year there are more than thirty metres in this community in one month the police say this area is a red zone one of several in some townships and kept our children sometimes at court in the crossfire when rival gangs fight so parents and grandparents have started what they call a walking bust to try to take them to gang violence i lost my family you talking while i'm doing years ago i also lost my but there are more than one hundred fifty volunteers working for several walking busses teachers say it is working class attendance has improved the volunteers also act as security guards. what began as a small extremist group in africa's most populous country we learned that they were in bed to from the government to just shoot soon turned into a battle front for the nigerian government. tried out yet. the tories for abducting more than two hundred schoolgirls the killing and displacement of thousands of people al-jazeera investigates the origins of bloody rise of iraq at this time on al-jazeera. we are living through a technological revolution but all the machines taking over if a piece of machinery goes wrong is there a train of litigation through which we can bring a legal system to bear oxford university professor of machine learning stephen roberts talks to all disease at this time. we al jazeera is our eyes and ears on the ground in southern africa identifying the crucially important stories for the audience that's incredibly to others. that rather than as not being adopted all winter or negative.

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