Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Covering the Undocumented

Covering the Undocumented: From the outset of filming her report on college students who were not U.S. citizens, documentary journalist and then graduate student Catherine Orr steered clear of come common tools for crafting news stories about non-residents wanting to conceal their identity.

However, in light of several highly public situations, “What I didn’t want to do,” said Orr, 29, producer of “Dreams Delayed,” a 2011 long-form, multimedia news feature on college access for undocumented immigrants, “is put up a barrier between the viewer and the [interviewed] by blurring their faces. The blur almost automatically makes them seem criminalized.”