Private Project

Road to Zuni

Road to Zuni documents the land loss of Zuni Indians and how they won a law suit they had filed against the federal government through the expert testimony given by their Anthropologist Dr.Triloki Nath Pandey.

With no expectation of reward, A Zuni family helps a struggling
student from India. When the Zuni Tribe fights in court to reclaim
their ancestral lands unjustly taken by the U.S., that student’s
expert testimony wins them a $25,000,000 settlement. This becomes the
basis for a subsequent additional award of $25,000,000 for a trust
conservancy, and an easement to the land the Zuni consider their
heaven.

Professor Triloki Nath Pandey’s story began in India, where coming out of a small village, he carried nothing but his father’s words: “No
matter how successful you become, remember where you came from.”

  • Annapurna Devi Pandey
    Director
  • James Freeman
    Writer
    The Plagiarist; Myth of the Birthplace of Buddha
  • Annapurna Devi Pandey
    Writer
    Myth of the Birthplace of Buddha
  • Annapurna Devi Pandey
    Producer
    Myth of the Birthplace of Buddha ( executive producer)
  • Triloki N Pandey
    Key Cast
    "self"
    UCSC
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    33 minutes 17 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 7th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival-2018
    Kolkata
    India
    July 22, 2018
    7th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival-2018
    Official selection
  • Action on Film 14th Annual Film Festival and Writers' Celebration 2018
    Las Vegas
    United States
    August 24, 2018
    Official selection, nominated for best cinematography and film political
  • Tribal Film festival

    United States
    August 25, 2018
    Indigenous film festival
    Official selection
Director Biography - Annapurna Devi Pandey

Dr. Annapurna Devi Pandey teaches Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Pandey holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and was a Post- doctoral fellow in Social Anthropology at Cambridge. Her research interests are women’s activism and leadership in the context of State and Multi-National Corporations, their economic and political empowerment in rural and tribal India; and women’s identity making in the Odia Diaspora in California. She is the author of numerous essays on Indian Women’s activism, agency, entrepreneurship and empowerment in India and Indian diaspora. Currently she is a senior Fulbright U.S. Scholar working in Odisha, India. Her research project focuses on the impact of skill training on everyday life of rural and tribal women in Odisha. She is an accomplished filmmaker (Homeland in the Heart; The Myth of Buddha’s Birthplace (with Prof. James Freeman) and Road to Zuni. She was President of the Orissa Society of the Americas (2011- 2013), the oldest socio-cultural organization of diasporic Odias in North America.

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Director Statement

Dear friends,
Road to Zuni is an amazing account of the Native Americans specially the Zuni people who adopted me as their kin on my first visit to the reservation in 1990. It is about their lives, loss of their land and the long term commitment of an Anthropologist who has stood by them to reclaim their land from the federal government.