About The Film

ALL THEY WILL CALL YOU is a feature-length documentary that follows the sixteen-year journey of author Tim Z. Hernandez, as he investigates the buried history of the 1948 plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon, California. Using a docu-road movie approach to the story, Hernandez seeks to uncover the names of the Mexican passengers killed in the crash and buried in a mass unmarked grave in California’s central valley. While the casualties were reported simply as “deportees” by American newspapers, the legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie composed a popular protest song that memorialized the victims and raised provocative questions about whose lives we recognize and remember. Guthrie’s song was recorded by folk music icons such as Bob Dylan, Peter Seeger, Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, and countless others.

Seven decades later, Tim Z. Hernandez, the son of migrant farmworkers, sets out on a journey into the past, through the heart of California’s agricultural belt, and across central Mexico. The story is part historical investigation, part personal calling, narrated by Hernandez, and documented over a span of fifteen years. With his investigative approach, he tracks down the relatives of the victims, uncovers the names and identities of the 28 Mexicans who were left faceless and nameless in their death, and recovers their dignity stripped many years ago. The documentary is based on Hernandez’s two highly acclaimed, award-winning books, “All They Will Call You” (2017) and “They Call You Back” (2024).