Artist in Person

An ordinary piece of cardboard is folded in thirds and, together with a pencil, spindle, and needle, becomes a phonograph player. This and other ingeniously constructed playback devices are tools of the trade for evangelical missionaries attempting to spread the Word to “tailenders,” the last people to be reached by missionary activity. Traveling to remote and impoverished places, including the Solomon Islands, Mexico, and India, Protestant missionaries distribute tapes to indigenous peoples in their own languages. Founded in Los Angeles in 1939, Global Recordings has made spiritual recordings in over 8,000 languages, drawing on market research and advertising principles. Adele Horne's essayistic documentary connects evangelism with spreading global capitalism as the missionaries advocate a life focused on individual material gain rather than communal needs. Poetically and powerfully, the documentary follows the recorded voice as it reverberates across languages, cultures, and belief systems, forever altering them.