Elaine McMillion Sheldon

Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker from Logan County, West Virginia. Her films explore life in Appalachia through personal and political lenses, covering topics such as coal’s cultural legacy, the opioid crisis, rural deindustrialization, incarceration, and environmental justice. Her latest feature documentary, KING COAL, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick and one of the year’s best documentaries by Esquire and Marie Claire.