Documentary Film Journeys: Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Jules Rosskam

How do you bring a new documentary film to life? How do you communicate your vision for a film before it’s made? Join filmmakers Elaine McMillion Sheldon (2021 Creative Capital Awardee) and Jules Rosskam (2021 Creative Capital Awardee) as they highlight key learnings from the making of their hybrid documentaries King Coal and Desire Lines.

Audiences will have the opportunity to hear about how each filmmaker pitched their projects, fundraised from traditional and nontraditional sources, and iterated on their concept via different research processes. Sheldon and Rosskam will also share lessons that continue to shape their approaches to creating new work.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and 2024 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences inductee. Her films — King Coal, Heroin(e), Recovery Boys, Tutwiler, Coal’s Deadly Dust, and Hollow — have premiered at Sundance, Telluride, and Hot Docs, and streamed and broadcast on Netflix, PBS POV, and PBS Frontline. She has received 9 Emmy nominations, 3 Peabody nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Creative Capital Award, and USA Fellowship. Her current feature documentary explores American labor amid the shifting energy landscape. Her work has screened at over 40 festivals across the U.S., Europe, and Canada, reaching hundreds of communities through theatrical, broadcast, and grassroots impact campaigns.

Jules Rosskam is an nonfiction filmmaker and educator. His work explores ethics, embodiment, and the relationship between form and politics, often focusing on trans experience through a trans lens. He is a 2026 United States Artist Fellow and a 2021 Creative Capital Awardee. Additionally, his work has been supported by Chicken and Egg Films, The Flaherty Film Seminar, Illinois Arts Council, and the LEF Foundation. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Art Boston, the British Film Institute, Arsenal Berlin, Anthology Film Archives, Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Gene Siskel Film Center, Sundance Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Provincetown International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and dozens of LGBTQ film festivals worldwide. Jules has participated in residencies at Yaddo, ISSUE Project Room, Marble House Project, and PLAYA. His most recent film, DESIRE LINES (2024) won the NEXT Special Jury Award at Sundance, and the Silver Alexander Award at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, among several other jury awards. DESIRE LINES has been called “hypnotic and enduring” by Cinema Daily, “a cinematic breath of fresh air” by Filmmaker Magazine, and “a film with intelligence and heart” by The New York Times. He is also the director of the award-winning films DANCE, DANCE, EVOLUTION (2019), PATERNAL RITES (2018), SOMETHING TO CRY ABOUT (2018), THICK RELATIONS (2012), AGAINST A TRANS NARRATIVE (2009), and TRANSPARENT (2005).