Elaine McMillion Sheldon spends devoted time unraveling the physical and emotional impacts coal mining has taken on various communities within the Appalachian region in her personal documentary, King Coal. Focusing more specifically in West Virginia where Sheldon is from, we take a glimpse into various lives that coal has affected. Sheldon’s own narration lends a voice to another girl growing up in coal country, still unaware of the cultural and complete environmental impact the substance has already taken on her life. Standing in as a surrogate for Sheldon, she explores the life that awaits her in the midst of a landscape changing into something new and different. What that will be is partly dependent on people like her and her classmate, who are seen working on a presentation on coal in their community.
The topic of coal is a sensitive one, but the way Sheldon dismantles its mythical qualities is delicate yet powerful. Mining was instrumental to survival for so many Appalachians despite life-threatening conditions that, in an instant, could very well be the death of those who rely on its existence. Great respect is bestowed upon those who work and have worked in the mines to provide for themselves and their families and, in turn, a nebulous fear of speaking aloud the horrors of coal darkens the countenance of those who dispense this reverence. It’s as if the seemingly limitless resource is akin to an eldritch giant, dormant just underneath our world that requires the sacrifices of those who borrow from its body in some dark karmic exchange. Unspoken ideas like these float across the faces of those who tell the stories of family and friends who have fallen in the mines.
We look into these lives not as an inquisitive outsider hunting for the factual details that bubble up above the surface of gathered stories of hearsay and uncorroborated accounts, but as a child of these mountains returning to hear the experiences of those who have not left. We huddle in to sit with those who listen to these stories; a former coal miner visiting a grade-school classroom recounting the mortal dangers he has faced; a little girl and her family sitting on the porch as her grandmother telling them of their family who worked in the mines, and as Black Americans she talks of the segregated communities they lived in; a tattoo artist speaking of his brief stint in the mines while inking a portrait of a client’s ancestor on his arm, sharing his severance to that particular industry after meeting the inherent danger that awaited him. Sheldon sits with these people as we do, too, but never forgets that those who learn from their elders have the choice to alter the course they have forged.
And there is a shift alluded to in King Coal, that the landscape exudes less majesty than what those who recall can describe. The children of the Appalachians hold in their hands the decisions of the future. King Coal is an interpretive portrait of community which can sometimes approach some on the nose metaphors, but is still so impactful and important to those both close to and far from the immediate impact of the mining industry. This film deserves to become a centerpiece of cultural discussion for multiple generations to come.
King Coal is currently playing at the DCTV Theater in New York with expansion to additional markets planned over the next couple of months.
King Coal is an interpretive portrait of community which can sometimes approach some on the nose metaphors, but is still so impactful and important to those both close to and far from the immediate impact of the mining industry. This film deserves to become a centerpiece of cultural discussion for multiple generations to come.
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GVN Rating 9
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Andre is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster. You can read their words on film at letterboxd and medium, and hear their voice on movies, monsters, and other weird things on Humanoids From the Deep Dive every other Monday. In their “off” time they volunteer as a film projectionist, reads fiction & nonfiction, comics, and plays video games until it’s way too late.