Shillong, June 13: A documentary on the "Khasi struggle to claim an authentic ethnicity, racial purity and right to land" by a Shillong-based filmmaker has been selected for screening at a film festival in the United Kingdom.

Where The Clouds End, directed by Wanphrang K. Diengdoh, will feature at the 14th RAI (Royal Anthropological Institute) International Festival of Ethnographic Films, 2015, in Bristol on Wednesday.

The screening has been organised by the department of archaeology and anthropology, University of Bristol, and the Centre for Visual Anthropology, department of anthropology, Dornsife College, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.

On the 2014 documentary of 52 minutes, Diengdoh said, " Where the Clouds End documents the Khasis' struggle to claim an authentic ethnicity, racial purity and right to land. It challenges stereotypical notions portrayed by the media of the unwanted 'outsider' who threatens traditions, social structures and moral values."

Explored over three chapters, whose titles are pillars of the Khasi traditional faith, he said the documentary examines tribal identity as a fluid concept, which defies "man-made imaginations, historical ideals, political definitions and geographic boundaries".

According to the film, it was after the creation of borders between India and her neighbours in 1947 that the movement of foreigners into Shillong began to arouse unrest.

The film explores the view that "people who had previously moved freely in the Khasi Hills began to be seen as an unwelcome influx, threatening the land and purity of the Khasi race".

In 2013, Diengdoh was awarded the Early Career Film Fellowship from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, for his documentary proposal, Where the Clouds End.

The film was supported by the Early Career Fellowship, School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, and funded by the Jamsetji Tata Trust.

A 36-minute short fiction film 19/87 (2011), directed by Diengdoh and Dondor Lyngdoh, had won the best film, best cinematography and best screenplay in the competition section of the first Guwahati International Short Film Festival, 2011.

19/87, directed by the two friends who graduated from the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, deals with an unusual or rather uncommon friendship that developed over a very tense period of time in the history of this place.

The story revolves around a Muslim tailor, with the gift of prophecy, and a Khasi youth who actually strays into his solitary path.

Diengdoh is an independent filmmaker based in Shillong and Delhi. He is the founder of Red Dur, a production space for films, music and design.

His other films, like the Kali Kamai installation (fellowship received from the Public Arts Grant, Foundation For Indian Contemporary Arts, 2010) as well as his music videos reflect his interest in the politics and culture of his hometown.