The New Puritans: The Sikhs of Yuba City

The New Puritans was made over a period of three years when we were students in the Bay Area. It was a learning experience in the craft of filmmaking as much as it was an exploration of the Punjabi Sikh community in the Yuba City area of Northern California. The film traces the history of this unique community — the largest rural concentration of Sikhs outside the Punjab — and focuses on the inevitable generational conflict between traditional value systems and customs and the increasing influence of American ideas and ways.