Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon takes us on a cinematic journey through the past, present, and future of her hometown Appalachia in her new documentary King Coal.
Sheldon remixes present-day moments of life in a coal-mining town with archival footage and atmospheric invocations of the land to alchemize something new — a rare, nuanced depiction of this community.
Release Date
King Coal world premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and opens in theaters in New York at DCTV Theater on August 11, expanding in the following weeks to cities and towns including Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Bluefield, WV, Charleston, WV, Hinton, WV, Akron, Ohio and Blacksburg, VA.
Synopsis
A lyrical tapestry of a place and people, King Coal meditates on the complex history & future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and myths it has created. Elaine McMillion Sheldon reshapes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking in a spectacularly beautiful & deeply moving immersion into Central Appalachia where coal is not just a resource, but a way of life, imagining the ways a community can re-envision itself. While deeply situated in the regions under the reign of ‘King Coal’, where she has lived & worked her entire life, the film transcends time and place, emphasizing the ways in which all are connected through an immersive mosaic of belonging, ritual, imagination. Emerging from the shadows of the coal mines, King Coal untangles the pain from the beauty, and it illuminates our capacity for change.
“Since premiering at Sundance in January we’ve had the opportunity to take this film to audiences across the country, and it’s clear that though King Coal documents the myths, fables, and realities of a specific place – Appalachia – the story of upheaval and belonging is universal and something deeply felt by many in this moment,” said Sheldon.
“It’s been so refreshing to see audiences respond to the boundary-pushing nonfiction elements and the immersive nature of the film as it draws upon all the senses and resists oversimplified solutions to our future. King Coal is truly a cinematic experience – incorporating choreography, a sound and breath artist, and a non-traditional score – that we think is best experienced in-community with others in theaters.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for King Coal.