''Below the Fold: The Pulitzer That Defined Latino Journalism'' is a 2007 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

written and directed by Roberto Gudiño to chronicle the story of the Mexican American journalists of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' who responded to negative portrayals of

Latinos Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spaniards, Spanish and/or Latin Americans, Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include a ...

in the newspaper by publishing the newspaper series "

". The newspaper received the

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the series. Filmed on locations in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and New York, the project debuted at the

Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) includes feature films, documentaries, and short films from the Spanish and Portuguese diaspora. The six-day festival was established in 1997. The festival was founded by Marlene Dermer (a ...

in October 2007.

Synopsis

On July 12, 1981 the ''Los Angeles Times'' published the first article in what came to be known as the "Marauders Series". Full of negative

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

and inflammatory language, the series depicted African Americans and Latinos as ruthless thieves who committed crimes in affluent neighborhoods and who fled via L.A.'s freeways. Mexican-American

reporters A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

organized and approached the ''Los Angeles Times''

editors Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

with a proposed new series: in-depth feature articles on

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

Latino life that would go beyond depictions of poverty,

gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

, and

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

. Their innovative story approach and produced a 27-part-story project. Some of their non-Hispanic newsroom colleagues made racist comments while the journalists worked, and the team had to fight to get the series nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Their efforts were rewarded with the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service,"The 1984 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Public Service"
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2018-07-22. presented to the ''Los Angeles Times''. The first

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

group to be recognized with a Pulitzer, they were honored at the Pulitzer luncheon ceremony at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

where

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

and

Peter Jennings Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings (July 29, 1938August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-born American television journalist who served as the sole anchor of ''ABC World News Tonight'' from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. He dropped o ...

were in attendance. ''Below The Fold'' tells the story of a group of people fighting to make their own voices heard. In doing so, present a complex and rich representation of Latinos in the

news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and ...

and generally in the U.S.

Recognition

The film was called "a powerful and heartfelt account of the journalists who set out to change the stereotypical reporting on Latinos in southern California."

Awards and accolades

* 2008,

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

jury award for best student film for Roberto Gudiño. * 2008,

Imagen Awards The Imagen Awards are administered by the Imagen Foundation, an organization dedicated to "encouraging and recognizing the positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry." To be considered for an Imagen Award, a media piece or person ...

nomination for 'Best Theatrical Short'.

Remake

When interviewed at the Imagen Awards in September 2008, Gudiño announced his "hopes to expand ''Below The Fold'' into a one-hour documentary for national broadcast." In November 2010,

Latino Public Broadcasting Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) is a non-profit organization that is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with the purpose of addressing issues of cultural significance to the Latino population in the United States The Un ...

announced ''Above The Fold'' as one of the recipients of the 2010 Public Media Content Fund. Roberto Gudiño will be using the funding to expand the 2007 short film ''Below the Fold'' into a feature-length documentary to be called ''Above the Fold''. In April 2011, he received an additional $10,000 grant from Film Independent to complete his project, the first LG Cinema 3D Fellowship in "Project:Involve" production grant to be awarded by them.

References

External links

''Below the Fold''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...