King Coal
TFI Suppport
Logline
A lyrical essay from a lost paradise - woven with a series of contemporary documentary vignettes - explores how coal is imbued in the identity and human experience of Appalachians. KING COAL serves as a visual reminder of why change is slow and painful.
Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Writer, Director
Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, and Emmy and Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker based in Appalachia. Sheldon is 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 Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary. She was named a 2018 USA Fellow by United States Artists and one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine. She has been commissioned by Netflix, PBS Frontline, The New York Times Op-Docs, TEDWomen, and Field of Vision. She is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.
Molly Born
Producer
Molly Born is a journalist and producer based in Appalachia. She is the recipient of the Galloway Fellowship for Reporting in Appalachia for a forthcoming project about the foster care system in West Virginia. She spent the first part of 2020 working as an audio producer for a Virginia Public Media podcast about coronavirus mutual aid. In 2018, Molly was a Report for America fellow at West Virginia Public Broadcasting where she covered the southern coalfields. She was named a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for her work. Previously, Molly spent six years as a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.