The Alsatian Language Preservation Project

In the 1840s Henri Castro recruited Alsatian families to establish communities west of San Antonio. Through the years the immigrants assimilated into American culture and used their Alsatian language less and less. In late 2021, a small group of descendants set out to preserve the Texas Alsatian dialect by filming the language as it was spoken.

We cast a net across the Castro Colonies to find Alsatian speakers, but found half the number we’d hoped — exclaiming the need for this production. This film is punctuated by Texas history, colored by humor, adorned with humanity, and symbolizes the ongoing effort to chase the American dream while honoring your ancestry.

The Alsatian Movie

The Alsatian Archive

Filming five groups of Alsatian speakers and creating an archive of over 100 stories is an exceptionally heavy lift. These first 40 chapters feature the first group. We’ll be adding additional groups and stories over the coming weeks. 

The Alsatian Behind the Scenes

While filming the Alsatian speakers I had little idea what they were saying. After filming, volunteers sat down with the storytellers and had them explain in English, word for word, what they said in Alsatian. Upon loading the transcript into my editing software, I understood the conversations that had taken place in front of my cameras for the first time.

Editing content in your native language is time-consuming. Editing content by captions takes a whole other level of patience. Producing a movie like this is extraordinarily rare, so I recorded a small part of the process to show some behind the scenes of how I worked.

The Production Company

We are fortunate to live in a time and place in history where we have the opportunity to capture our stories at such an exceptional level for posterity. Since 2009, I’ve been helping non-actors be themselves and speak from the heart on camera. Movies aren’t just for celebrities anymore, and I’ve developed these production levels below for families just like mine and yours.

Expertly-captured stories with perfected audio and aesthetics, delivered exactly as it was told

• Living room transformation to production studio
• Guided interview process that promotes discovery
• Movie-quality imagery and sound