The Tailenders is a feature-length documentary written and directed by Los
Angeles-based independent filmmaker Adele Horne. The film introduces
viewers to Global Recordings Network (GRN), an evangelical Christian
missionary organization devoted to translating Bible stories into all of the
languages of the world. Focusing on oral transmission by working with
native speakers of indigenous languages, GRN makes recordings of the
stories and distributes them in low-tech formats using “hand-crank” technologies.
The film emphasizes the linkages between Christian missionary
groups and processes of capitalist globalization, between Protestant values
and the technologies of modernity.