KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Elaine McMillion Sheldon has participated in and led a wide array of speaking engagements, panels, and workshops, often centered around documentary filmmaking, artful and ethical storytelling, and social change. Notably, 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, as well as The National Archives, The Aspen Institute, and The Obama Foundation Summit.

She has also led workshops at renowned institutions such as the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Visions du Réel in Switzerland, and the Future of Storytelling Conference. Her panels include high-profile events like the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. Additionally, she has taught documentary storytelling workshops for organizations such as Maine Media Institute and New Orleans Video Collective.

Sheldon has made numerous high-profile media appearances and interviews, highlighting her work and its societal impact. She has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, MSNBC’s Meet the Press, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Additionally, her insights have been covered by The Guardian, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

 

TESTIMONIALS

Testimonials

For over a half a decade, Elaine has generously supported emerging and established filmmakers as a panelist and mentor. Her participation as a panelist for FilmNorth's Inclusive and Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab added easily accessible insights on filmmaking and the documentary process. Elaine has continuously been singled out by students and professionals in the field as a highlight of the program. Her views on the field of documentaries continue to support ethical practices while balancing historic practices with today's newest advancements. Elaine is a wealth of knowledge to any filmmaker, no matter their genre to level of experience.

Jake Yuzna, Walker Art Center

The doors to the film world can feel tightly shut for outsiders like myself and Elaine blew that right open. As someone who is self-taught, the doc course at Maine Media gave me a sense of stability - and confidence that I am moving in the right direction.

Zulilah Merry, filmmaker

Elaine Sheldon's documentary workshop at NOVAC was our best attended offering of the year. She was so generous in sharing about her experiences working in the field. Her insights into her successes with funding projects, researching storylines, building rapport with subjects, and distributing her films were invaluable to our community.

Jillian Godshall, NOVAC Programs Manager

I thoroughly enjoyed Elaine’s course which was so resourceful to us. By walking me through her process, I managed to learn vicariously through her several years of filmmaking experience crammed into just a few days. Her willingness to share so much continuously helps and inspires me along my own filmmaking journey.

Radha Mehta, filmmaker

Elaine came to speak to Vox video's team about how a documentary film comes together through directing. She was so generous with sharing her wisdom, and was able to describe such an intangible element of the craft through practical, on-the-ground experience. We so appreciated having access to her considerable storytelling chops, and the value her talk added to the team's understanding was truly priceless.

Cath Spangler, Co-Executive Producer and Director of Production of VOX

We were fortunate to host a residency with Elaine McMillion Sheldon at the 2024 Boone Docs Film Festival. During the residency, Elaine offered a master class for our documentary students, screened her documentary King Coal, and engaged in a community discussion about how she approaches documenting Appalachian communities. Elaine took care to address our students' questions with specific details, illustrating her answers from her lived experience. We received overwhelmingly positive comments from audience members about her residency.

Tom Hansell, filmmaker and professor at Appalachian State University

 

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