The Genuinely Interested Podcast Ep 82 - Elaine McMillion Sheldon - Telling the Untold Stories of Appalachia
Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, and Emmy and Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker based in Appalachia. She is the director of two Netflix Original Documentaries - "Heroin(e)" and "Recovery Boys" - that explore America's opioid crisis. "Heroin(e)" was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award and won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary. She was also featured on Anthony Bourdain's - Parts Unknown West Virginia episode, and she helped with everything on the episode from location to story to people.
Elaine's family has been in West Virginia for generations, and she is proud to tell the untold stories of the region, show the people that would otherwise not get shown, and showcase the problems there - in the hopes of solving them.
Elaine and I discuss -
- Why she focuses on storytelling in Appalachia
- Why documentaries are so popular now
- How to get people to open up in front of a camera
- The opioid and heroin crisis
- Her work with Anthony Bourdain
- Her documentary Heroin(e)
And much more...
My Take: We must never look at the other as different or unapproachable, we shouldn't see differences as dividers, but rather an opportunity to engage in conversation and strengthen/create bonds through dialogue and open communication. The reason why good documentaries touch us so profoundly is that they allow us a peek into worlds otherwise inaccessible to us. Good documentaries have the power to open our eyes, get us involved, shed light on important topics, move us, and henceforth create change.