I am SO PROUD of KING COAL’s cinematographer, and my dear husband, Curren Sheldon for his huge award by the American Society of Cinematographers.
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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.
This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
Bobak Lotfipour talks about his work on King Coal at San Francisco Film Festival.
Composer Bobak Lotfipour and I worked together to dream up a rich, challenging musical landscape that represented both the beauty and pain of the region largely through over 20 percussive instruments: drums, bells, crystal bowls, and playing non-traditional objects, such as sheets of metal. We sought to create two worlds for the music. The coal world being machine-driven, electric, with bass and darkness. The film in these moments has deep rumbles of uncertainty; the oppression that living in a boom-and-bust economy creates. In the non-coal scenes our palette was less mechanical; more human, animal, and textured. These natural sounds, including human whistles, were still mysterious and not too sweet. We sought a balance between the images and sound, imbuing calm visuals with an eeriness and mystery in the music. The musical landscape reflects the film’s focus on a community on the brink of change, with all its uncertainty and all the fears and joys.
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This post is part of a short series where I am sharing some behind the scenes info about the making of KING COAL
This is a film that blends vérité scenes with imagined scenes where real people, non-actors, were asked to just go about life in front of the cameras. But the scene itself, in the case of the funeral as pictured above, would not have existed without the framework of the film. Other scenes were purely natural, with us filming live events but with two young girls —dancers with coal family connections that we cast— just being kids in the moment. It was a constant recalibration and humbling experience to dream big, fail massively, and then get back up the next day and try again. This type of filmmaking required everyone on our team to think on their toes about how to best capture the magic of real life and always ask how this might work in our overall narrative.
King Coal is whole-heartedly a product of taking creative risks. We filmed this over three years and we were led from shoot to shoot based on reactions and creative impulses of our team and Appalachians we filmed with. Some ideas for shots and scenes came to me as a single image from my imagination, or a memory from childhood that I wanted to recreate. Others were spontaneous ideas that popped into our minds while being immersed in the environments we filmed in. The entire act of filmmaking and creating this film was a call and response between our team and the land and people we were filming. Much credit goes to our small, but mighty, on-the-ground producing team – Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Molly Born, Clara Haizlett, Curren Sheldon, and Elijah Stevens – who took my craziest ideas for scenes like king coal’s funeral, and made them a reality.
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!