California Documentary Project
The Tailenders
Film Arts Foundation, San Francisco
Project Director: Adele Horne
Over the past 60 years, Gospel Recordings, a missionary organization in the Los Angeles area, has recorded Christian messages in more than 5,4000 languages. Many of the messages are presented in languages spoken by only a few thousand people. Gospel Recordings calls these people the Tailenders, people whose geographic and linguistic isolation puts them at the tail end of worldwide missionary efforts. "The Tailenders" is a digitally shot video that documents from start to finish the production of an audio recording for use among California's migrant Mixtec agricultural workers who migrate annually to California from Oaxaca, Mexico. The documentary seeks to create a discussion about the role of the media in intercultural encounters and the role of religion in the lives of new immigrants.