Film-maker Tamara Gordon has nine major television awards to her name; but the recent addition of a MISTY is the most important to her.

"I've got a history but to me this award is the most special one. I've done a lot of community TV and that's what these guys stand for," she said.

The awards celebrate media producers who are using their skills for positive social change and Tamara's film Borderline, a fairytale documentary about Hay-on-Wye, takes a sideways look at the town from an outsider's perspective.

Tamara grew up in Capel-y-ffin before moving to London, where she went to school.

She returned to the area a couple of years ago to scatter her mother's ashes on the Black Mountains.

She was drinking in The Three Tuns when a local mentioned to her that they wished somebody would make a film about Hay before it changed.

A film-maker in London at the time, Tamara realised that there was more to life. "It was time to leave the rat race - London didn't feel quite like home," she said. Borderline took the next 18 months to make and features mainly local people.

It details Richard Booth's investiture as King of Hay as well as his more recent running for local council.

"This place has a spirit that you don't find in many places," Tamara said.

"You can be independent in Hay, everybody's doing their own thing.

"When I came to Hay I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Everybody has a double identity - a sense of not being quite real.

"The film celebrates that individual spirit."

The story of Richard Booth, who created his own kingdom in 1977, is the stuff of fairytales.

Regarded by some as 'the King's royal photographer', Tamara admits that her telling of the town's history has a political message.

Inspired by Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, which was itself inspired by the story of an inspector from London visiting a Welsh town to ascertain its sanity, Borderline peels back the surface of a town that is on the borders in more ways than one.

"Showing it back to the village was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done," Tamara admitted.

"I didn't know if I was going to get thrown out of the place, but 99% of people liked it."

Having released the film during this year's Hay Festival - which went down a storm - Tamara has big plans for the Globe Gallery, where she is living.

Her ideas include creating a cinema and arts venue with an alternative voice.

"I like the idea of creating a space for people who can't get a slot in the main festival," she said.

To get hold of a copy of Borderline, call 01497 821191.