Local author and photographer Andrew Stevenson's first documentary film, 'Paving Shangri La', has been accepted into the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. It successfully competed against 400 entries to achieve the honour.

"This is the one festival I was really hoping to make it into," he says. "They don't give awards. It is considered an award just being one of the final films chosen to be shown."

In informing Mr. Stevenson of his success, Festival director Arlene Burns noted that competition was particularly tough this year with over 400 entries and one third less films making the final cut.

The Telluride film festival takes place from May 26 to 29, and Mr. Stevenson is planning to attend.

In describing the subject matter of 'Paving the Road to Shangri La', which he also wrote, directed, edited and narrated, the first-time filmmaker says: "The Annapurna Himalayas of Nepal are home to 120,000 subsistence farmers. In the Annapurna Conservation Area, within sight of the Tibetan border, is a more authentic Tibetan world than exists in Chinese-occupied Tibet. Absence of roads in this culturally rich and scenic area has made the Annapurnas one of the world's most popular trekking destinations."

An annual visitor to the Annapurnas, Mr. Stevenson used a video camera for the very first time to record a way of life that will soon fade into the lost horizon of a forgotten time. Walking 125 miles in the middle of winter through the Himalayas to the Tibetan Plateau and the hidden and forbidden kingdom of Mustang, he stayed in the homes of locals he had befriended over the past two decades.

"As Nepalese rebels inspired by Maoism destabilise a corrupt and elitist system of government, creating anarchy and a power vacuum, modern China is concerned that Nepal will de facto become another client state of its arch rival, India," Mr. Stevenson says. "In an effort to gain access to Nepal, and to increase its influence, China is continuing to build a road through the Annapurna Conservation Area and the hidden kingdom of Mustang, connecting Chinese-occupied Tibet with Nepal's second largest city, Pokhara.

The spectacular images of mule trains, yak caravans and local traditions in 'Paving Shangri La' depict the cost of completing this military highway."

'Paving Shangri La' premired at the Bermuda International Film Festival last year where it won an honorary mention. More recently the documentary opened the Kendal Mountainfilm Festival in the Lake District of England, and was a finalist at the Himalayan Mountain Film Festival in Amsterdam.

The version to be shown at Telluride is a re-edited version, and as such will receive its world premire.

Telluride's Mountainfilm festival is described as "about ideas; cultures and the landscapes they occupy; a world where adventure is alive, history is important and people are passionate about what they believe. It is also about environmental integrity and a rich spirit of celebration".

Through this philosophy, "the films and ideas result in changes in thought and new insights, and at their best, they result in changes in values and social policy. It is about passionate people who take action, and spur others to get involved."

Which nicely sums up Mr. Stevenson too.