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