"The Tailenders," a new documentary of interest to linguistic anthropologists, was broadcast nationally last month on P.O.V. and is now available from New Day Films. The Tailenders is a captivating look at a missionary group's use of ultra-low-tech audio devices to evangelize indigenous communities facing crises caused by global economic forces. Global Recordings Network, founded in Los Angeles in 1939, has produced audio versions of Bible stories in over 5,500 languages, and aims to record in every language on earth. The film traces their journeys in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, India and the United States, where they distribute the recordings, along with hand- wind audio players, to "the Tailenders": the last people to be reached by worldwide evangelism.

The film raises questions about how people who receive the recordings understand them. It explores the physical properties of sound, how the recorded voice mingles with unintentionally recorded local ambient sounds, and how meaning changes as it crosses language and culture.

Critical Acclaim:

"The Tailenders provides extraordinary insight into the work of missionaries in remote regions throughout the world, and the key place of translation and technology in the world of contemporary evangelical work. Combining documentary and experimental approaches with great attention to the visual and auditory concerns, this film is one of the best I have seen on this topic." - Faye Ginsburg, Director, Center for Media, Culture and History, New York University

"To make The Tailenders, Adele Horne combined her filmmaker's skills with the perception and fairness of a skilled ethnographer. The film is a provocative portrait of an evangelical mission on the insecure margins of the global economy." - Jon Miller, Director of Research, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California

"This gorgeous, inspired and gutsy film . . . opens up new ideological vistas on religion, technology and globalization. It dares viewers not to be surprised by it." - Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times

"A haunting documentary about Christian missionaries who have been traveling the world since 1939 to record and spread Bible stories in every language." - Nancy Dewolf Smith, The Wall Street Journal

"With a visual clarity equal to her intellectual discourse, Horne explores the myriad contrasts offered by her subject, alive to many epiphanies and ironies along the way." - Ronnie Scheib, Variety