EXCLUSIVE: Only about 40,000 people work in coal mining in the U.S., a modest number compared to other lines of work – 1.7 million people, for instance, are employed in the auto industry.
And yet coal and coal mining occupy an almost mythic place in the American imagination that belies the labor force statistics. In the documentary King Coal, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and Appalachia native Elaine McMillion Sheldon examines a part of the country deeply embedded, one might say, in the charred rock. As America increasingly turns away from coal as an energy source and towards renewables, the future of coal country remains uncertain.
“A lyrical tapestry of a place and people, King Coal meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and the myths it has created,” notes a description of the film. “Oscar-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon reshapes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking in a spectacularly beautiful and 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.”
Drexler Films/Cottage M/Fishbowl Films
King Coal opens in New York at DCTV Theater on August 11, expanding in the succeeding weeks to cities and towns including Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Bluefield, WV, Charleston, WV, Hinton, WV, Akron, Ohio and Blacksburg, VA. We have your first look at the film in the trailer above.
“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,” Sheldon said in a statement. “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.”
In addition to Sundance, King Coal has played at numerous festivals around the country, including San Francisco, Marin County’s Doclands, Sarasota, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Woods Hole. It is produced by Oscar winners Shane Boris and Diane Becker, who collaborated on Navalny, and IDA Award winner Peggy Drexler (Mike Wallace Is Here).
“Sheldon’s distinct vision 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,” Sundance programmers wrote in their festival guide. “A young girl learning the story of coal anchors the journey while Sheldon’s poetic voiceover guides us through the experience and an expressive score differentiates the reality of coal from a more imaginative world.”
Watch the trailer above.
