"Where
the Clouds Come Home" began with a chance meeting at a party. When my new
friend told me about his homeland, Meghalaya (lit. "the land where the
clouds come home"), I felt it would make an wondeful setting for a film.
When he told me about the uranium mining plans, and notably about Spillity
Langrin, the female landowner who appears in the video here, I knew I had my
story.
I
explored the potential characters with my friend, and contacted another
film-maker who had worked in the region. We began crafting a treatment. In
November 2009 I self-funded a filming trip to Meghalaya and explored the
region. On location, my understanding of the characters grew and I adjusted accordingly
to find the strongest stories.
The
challenges were many. I was filming solo in a remote area, so when my camera
faulted I had to take a circuitous route to find a back up. I relied on a
translator for interviews - something I'd never done before. To get to the
mining village we drove through the night and on arrival went straight into a
full shooting day, before repeating the through-the-night journey to return.
I plan to develop this
project into an hour-long documentary. As a film-maker my ambition is to make
documentaries for international distribution which tell engaging, artful
stories about captivating characters, which motivate, challenge and inspire
people towards positive social change. I have much to learn in order to fulfil
that ambition, and your scholarship would provide the opportunity to make steps
towards realising my dream.
