ABOUT ELAINE

Photo by Raymond Thompson

Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker. Her latest films include a personal meditation on the future of the Appalachian coalfields (KING COAL), two observational explorations of the opioid crisis (HEROIN(E) & RECOVERY BOYS), a film that follows the separation of pregnant inmates from their children (TUTWILER), and the deindustrialization of rural communities (HOLLOW), among other economic, cultural, political, and environmental stories. Sheldon’s films have been exhibited and screened at film festivals across the U.S. and internationally, including Sundance, Telluride, Hot Docs, Full Frame, San Francisco International, DOC 10, DOXA, Seattle International, DocLands, Hot Springs, New Orleans, and Camerimage.

She has been nominated for 6 Emmy awards, 3 Peabody awards, is a Creative Capital Awardee, a Livingston Award Finalist, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, a USA Fellow by United States Artists, a Chicken and Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker, one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine, and one of "50 People Changing The South" by Southern Living Magazine. In 2024, Sheldon was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

KING COAL premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times named it a Critics’ Pick, Esquire, and Marie Claire named it “one of the best documentaries of the year.” The film screened at over 40 festivals in North America and in Germany, France, Poland, Spain, and the U.K. With the help of Mia Bruno from Fourth Act Film, KING COAL did an independent, 50-screen theatrical run in major U.S. cities, including New York City and Los Angeles, as well as the Rust Belt, the South, and Appalachia. In June 2024, KING COAL had its national broadcast premiere as the season opener for PBS’ POV, America’s longest-running non-fiction series. The film is a production of Drexler Films, Cottage M, and Fishbowl Films.

Sheldon is also the director of two Netflix Original Documentaries - HEROIN(E) and RECOVERY BOYS - that explore America's opioid crisis. HEROIN(E) was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award and won the 2018 News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary. The short film premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival and went on to screen hundreds of times across America as part of a community-driven impact campaign. RECOVERY BOYS premiered at the 2018 Hot Docs Film Festival and has screened in over 300 communities inside prisons, rehabs, schools, churches, and non-profits.

In 2020, she released TUTWILER a rare and intimate look at motherhood inside one of America's most notorious prisons. TUTWILER, a collaboration with The Marshall Project and PBS Frontline, raises questions about how America is handling the growing crisis of incarcerated pregnant women, and what happens to their newborns. The film was nominated for a 2021 News and Documentary Emmy Award, won a 2021 Deadline Club Award, and was a finalist in the ONA Journalism Awards and 2021 Livingston Awards.

Her 2019 film COAL’S DEADLY DUST - a PBS Frontline and NPR collaboration - investigates the rise of severe black lung disease among coal miners. This joint investigation with NPR's veteran reporter, Howard Berkes, reveals the biggest disease clusters ever documented, and how the industry and the government failed to protect miners. COAL’S DEADLY DUST was nominated for a 2019 Peabody Award, a 2020 Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award, and two 2020 News and Documentary Emmy nominations for Outstanding Investigative Report in a Newsmagazine and Best Story in a Newsmagazine. It was the answer to a Jeopardy question in October 2021.

In 2013, she released HOLLOW an interactive documentary that examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of West Virginians. HOLLOW received a Peabody, News and Documentary Emmy Award nomination and 3rd Prize in the World Press Photo Multimedia Awards.

Her co-directed work, MEET SALIA, with Curren Sheldon for Sesame Street in Communities won a 2020 Daytime Emmy Award. The short film explores addiction and recovery from the viewpoint of a child and her family’s resilience.

She has been commissioned by Netflix, PBS Frontline, The Center for Investigative Reporting, Oxford American, The New York Times Op-Docs, TEDWomen, Field of Vision, and The Bitter Southerner. Sheldon has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Anthony Bourdain's CNN Show Parts Unknown, and Meet The Press with Chuck Todd. She has screened her films, spoken on panels, given lectures, and held workshops with students at Harvard University, Yale University, Brown University, Wesleyan University, Emerson College, Emory & Henry College, The Ohio State University, Denison University, West Virginia University, Vermont College of Fine Arts, among others.

She holds a B.S. in journalism from West Virginia University and a MFA in Visual and Media Arts from Emerson College. Sheldon was born in Southwestern Virginia, grew up in Southern West Virginia, and now lives in West Virginia with her husband, frequent collaborator, and cinematographer, Curren Sheldon. Together, they run Grounded Theory - a creative studio based in the Appalachian Mountains. She is represented by Amanda Lebow at CAA.

FULL CV