I joined the podcast Utopias with Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan to talk about my film King Coal. I explained my approach to documentary filmmaking and the tension between loyalty and truth in my community of Central Appalachia. We also discussed the work of repair that can lead to a brighter future.
Viewing entries in
KING COAL
In the Shadow of King Coal
While the coal industry is in terminal decline, it still shapes the culture of central Appalachia.
a special thanks to our wonderful publicists at MPRM for helping get the word out about KING COAL
To practice humanitarian patience in representing a chronically misunderstood culture is commendable in its own right, but to go beyond journalistic objectivity and strive to become a proud and personable work of art? That might just be something new altogether.
The Best Documentaries of 2023
The Film Stage
The Best Documentaries of 2023 (So Far)
Esquire
Melancholic, thoughtfully attuned cinematic essay
The New York Times (Critic’s Pick)
Breathtaking
Wall Street Journal
Eloquently layered piece of creative nonfiction
Film Matters Magazine
Lush in presentation and sober in meaning, the film is an artistic triumph.
Film Festival Today
A highly expressive, poetic film; to call it a documentary feels like something of a misdirection
Film Obsessive
Transcends mere documentation, evolving into cinematic art.
Overly Honest Movie Reviews
A poignant documentary finds hope for the future
New Scientist
A lyrical tribute
RogerEbert.com
A genuine piece of cinematic art at the highest level
Unseen Films
King Coal is a rare work of art that manages to look forward precisely by looking backward, putting boundaries around the past only to make it part of the future.
Film Inquiry
A glimpse into a world most of us don’t have a lot of insight into.
Film Threat
King Coal is an odyssey—an epic poem in the form of a film.
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
The Most Anticipated Docs of 2023
Esquire
King Coal is not merely a history; it is a ghost story, an exercise in remembrance, and a cinematic archive.
Film Daze
This film deserves to become a centerpiece of cultural discussion for multiple generations to come.
Geek Vibes Nation
Illuminating, Insightful Cine-Essay.
Screen Anarchy
Thanks to this unique vision that goes beyond the simple headlines or prejudices about the area, Sheldon’s poetic documentary is both welcoming and wonderful.
POV Magazine
Sheldon has a style of her own – impressionistic, atmospheric, searching.
Crooked Marquee
It really does feel as if she’s looking directly into the soul of the community for answers, with Curren Sheldon’s arresting cinematography illuminating the resilience of those who have stuck around and unlocking the wonder still in the air that makes it feel that there’s something still untapped in the region that’s been left for dead.
Moveable Fest
An atmospheric, evocative elegy for Central Appalachia. Sheldon envisions a future built on the sturdy foundation of King Coal’s past, but one that soars beyond its crushing darkness.
The Playlist
Appalachia Rises in Poetic, Personal Doc
Indie Wire
Reveals a resilience that’s hard to shake
Next Best Picture
A startling piece of anthropology
Paste Magazine
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
An ambisonic recording device built by sound recordist, Billy Wirasnik.
Our sound mix team at Signature Post was led by Alexandra Fehrman (CODA, 2021; Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022) who supervised the incredible team: re-recording mixer, Tim Hoogenakker; sound designer, Benjamin L. Cook; dialogue editor, Christina Chuyue Wen; and foley services by Post Creations. The sound mix hinged on emphasizing the lush environments captured by our production sound mixer, Billy Wirasnik, who recorded an incredible library of ambisonic nature recordings —birds, crickets, owls, thunder, wind, rain, rivers, creeks, forests— over the course of several years of production. We also worked with breath artist Shodekeh Talifero, who with his own body and voice made the sound of thunder, ocean waves, crickets, wind, whistles, and many other sounds. We recorded his session in a moss-floored, dense forest in the Allegheny Mountains (hats off to associate producer, Clara Haizlett, for finding this perfect outdoor sound studio). His sound art and human breath is used throughout the film as transitions and as a motif to explore the new life the coalfields are embarking upon. Sound, in addition to music, plays a key role in the film’s magical realism.
King Coal was reviewed today in The New York Times where it received a Critics’ Pick!
You can stream the film on Amazon Prime!
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
I began filming King Coal in 2019, but when COVID-19 kept us at home, I had time to start thinking more about the goals of this film as a piece of cinema, not just from a traditional documentary impact point of view. I sought out films that helped me break open the ways I had been telling stories. Above are some images from films that inspired my thinking behind King Coal. These are films that explore the myths of places, the dreams of children, hauntings and ghosts stories, dance and movement, surreal sound design, use voice-over narration as a guide, feature raw vérité moments, rely on mosaic structures, center children and/or women, employ wardrobe and production design as a form of storytelling, explore Afrofuturism and magical realism, use editing to create new worlds with a single cut, and where metaphors and symbolism are at the center of plot. There are many more films to be listed (“Badlands” by Terrence Malick also comes to mind when writing the voice over narration), but it felt like a very important part of my process to broaden my reference points outside of documentaries. I aimed to tell a story that was felt, but not always seen. That required me to employ cinematic tools I had never used before in vérité filmmaking.
Read Elaine’s full list of films that inspired thinking in King Coal here.
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
The film is a documentary that blends fictional and fable storytelling elements to tell a different story of coal. One way it does this is by centering the story on two West Virginia girls, Lanie Marsh and Gabby Wilson, who were cast for the roles at local dance studios. Some of the scenes they are featured in are real-life moments, like the West Virginia Coal Festival in Madison, W.Va. In those scenes, Lanie and Gabby were placed there to show what it’s like to be a kid, but the things they say and do in them are completely unscripted and unprompted. Other scenes, such as those featuring the girls dancing in front of coal piles or in surreal landscapes, were set up for the purposes of the film. But never were Lanie and Gabby given a script to read; they were asked to be themselves in every scene.
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
CAPTION: Director of photography, Curren Sheldon, and director, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, with their 3-month old baby while filming King Coal in Thurmond, West Virginia.
The writing process first began before filming started. I found myself drawn to a form of creative nonfiction that blended personal story with folklore. As we began to film King Coal the writing evolved and became a reaction to the footage itself. Some of the writing digs beneath the surface of what is being seen, like a coal dust 5K, to illuminate the psychology of coal as a cultural touchstone. My goal was to tell the truth, but without complete condemnation. Towards the end of the film the narration shifts from “I” and “me” to “we” and “us.” This collective sense of identity carries through to other aspects of the film. The script poses more questions than answers, something contributing writer and editor, Iva Radivojević, encouraged.
In the middle of production, I gave birth to my first child. Having a child really put into perspective the story I needed to voice through this film. I asked myself what I wanted to communicate about the history of Appalachia and the fading role of coal to the child I was bringing into the modern world. It became very important that this film didn’t just replace the negative ideas of Appalachia with beautiful ones, but instead allows the pain and strength to swirl around in order to allow for a slow absorption of contradictions, irony, and imagination. The process of making this film required a level of vulnerability and personal excavation that was challenging, but speaking to the next generation gave me courage. My initial resistance to being the narrator faded away as the team and I recognized that it was my voice that was most true to the writing, which is not always first-person, but always personal. Hats off to my contributing writers, Shane Boris, Logan Hill, Iva Radivojević, and Heather Hannah, who read countless drafts and edited for clarity, rhythm, and pacing.
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
Documenting coal culture wasn’t enough. It was the seed for the film, but not the flower. The idea, the seed, needed patience and time. It needed nurturing. Oftentimes our first ideas are too obvious, but this process of germinating is not a passive experience. It is one I lost sleep over. Watering it daily through sitting down and forcing myself to write. Through digging through the archives. Through conversations with producers, Shane Boris, Diane Becker, and Peggy Drexler; editor, Iva Radivojević as well as my partner and director of photography, Curren Sheldon. Through relearning my own history and seeing the blindspots. Through letting go of what was acceptable in nonfiction storytelling, and making room for anything else. I looked to other traditions — family archives, poetry, folklore, magical realism, ghost stories, fables, dance and movement, the land itself, and sound art, among other cinematic tools — to help guide the final language of the film.
My own family archives began to be a portal in which I could imagine new and old narratives colliding. My family has been in Appalachia for nine generations. My great uncle, Roy Russell, documented the mundane and surreal moments of his life in the mountains. Moments of kids at play, of my great grandmother writing letters, of the first miners in my family, of decorating graves at the family cemetery, and of ladders that led to unknown caves. In the end, I learned that I needed to break open my ways of working. Of relearning how to tell stories, how to add more play into my nonfiction, to get to a deeper, more internal truth beyond an observed truth. My community is in need of grieving as a way of processing the impact coal has had on us. But I also was in need of this. I used this film as a way to grieve with my community and family.
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
The film started in 2019 by documenting coal culture, seen through coal dust runs, pageants, coal shoveling contests, and coal education in the classroom. Some of these things have been around since I was a kid in the coalfields. Co-Producer Molly Born and I sought these rituals and traditions out to document a living archive. One of our very first shoots for this film was in a classroom with kids. Fred Powers, a retired miner, told stories of his time in the mines, labor disputes, and fatalities. He had no “kid filter” to his message about coal — it was neither pro or anti-coal, it was simply his story. Fred impressed us with his ability to walk the fine line of honoring the past, while calling out the injustices. The kids impressed us with their attention, curiosity, humor, and enthusiasm. It was clear, when the students asked “what is that?” as Fred held up a piece of coal, that this story of coal was not one of their own making, but instead one that was being handed down to them. As we documented the coalfields, it quickly became clear these coal-related rituals were dying traditions. Many of them were traditions born out of people’s fears of “the king” dying. So I started to ask — what new rituals do we need in life and in film to help us live? This led us to think more about the already-blurred lines between myth and reality, of the power and influence of coal, when it comes to life in the coalfields.
I am writing with exciting news that my latest feature film, "King Coal," will have its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
I am so excited to be premiering in the NEXT section - a program that features "visionary works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling."
As many of you know, I have been working on this film since 2019, and I am extremely grateful to everyone who has helped me get to this stage of finishing. This film is truly a new creative exploration for me - and departure from my previous work - so to have the support of Sundance is incredible.
I just wanted to say THANK YOU as so many of you have been longtime supporters of me and this film.
Logline: The cultural roots of coal continue to permeate the rituals of daily life in Appalachia even as its economic power wanes. The journey of a coal miner’s daughter exploring the region’s dreams and myths, untangling the pain and beauty, as her community sits on the brink of massive change.
SPECIAL THANKS
to supporters:
Creative Capital, USA Artists, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, West Virginia Humanities Council, Catapult Film Fund, Field of Vision, Chicken & Egg, The University of Tennessee School of Art, Documentary Educational Resources - and many, many others!
to the team:
Katherine Drexler (EP) Heather Baldry (EP), Peggy Drexler (producer), Diane Becker (producer), Shane Boris (producer), Curren Sheldon (DP, co-producer), Iva Radivojević (editor), Molly Born (co-producer), Billy Wirasnik (production sound), Clara Haizlett (associate producer), Elijah Stevens (associate producer), Celia Rowlson-Hall (choreography), Shodekeh Talifero (breath percussion), Bobak Lotfipour (original score), Logan Hill (writing consultant) - and so many more.
Family and friends (so many!)
The Marsh Family, The Wilson Family, The McMillion Family, The Sheldon Family.
Forgive me, if failed to mention you here!