When Kerrin Sheldon was a student at Bridgeport High School, he focused on sports. Indian soccer? One hundred percent. Filmmaking? Not so much.

 

Fast forward 14 years and Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated producer, filmmaker and director of photography. At their Red Carpet appearance at last week's 90th Annual Academy Awards, he and his wife Elaine (McMillion) were singled out by E Entertainment as a couple "that looks like a million bucks." 

 

Sheldon's work is diverse, from the West Virginia-made Netflix Original “Heroin(e)” – documenting three women on the front lines of the opioid epidemic – to the filming of fly fishing, deep sea diving and boxing.

 

It’s a career and a passion first sparked while attending Wingate University in North Carolina, where he continued his soccer career and was named two-time CoSIDA Academic All-America. After earning his undergraduate degree at Wingate, he moved on to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to earn a master's. 

 

“At both locations, I focused on journalism and professional writing,” he said. “I did take a few photography courses and one video course through those five and a half years, but photography was just a hobby I did on the side or when I worked for the school newspapers.”

 

He was working as a content manager for a travel company in New York City when he decided to film for a living.

 

“This was in 2011-12 and I saw such a need for high-quality travel films that were deeper and more authentic,” he said. “So, my buddy and I decided to quit our jobs and travel the world starting our first company, HumanityTV.”

 

It was a learning curve. And an exciting one.

 

“We were trying to make a living so we would make at least one short film every week about an inspirational or adventurous person we met during our travels,” Sheldon said. “This resulted in getting jobs at travel brands like Marriott Hotels and Renaissance Hotels, as well as pick up clients like Facebook and Outside Magazine.”

 

Luckily, those high-profile companies liked what Sheldon and his business partner did through their own travel brand and they wanted more. The quest developed into a full-time career. For Sheldon, it evolved into long-form documentary-driven work - once he met his wife-to-be, Elaine McMillion, a 2009 graduate of West Virginina University's journalism program.

 

The couple worked together on “Heroin(e), which earned a 2018 Academy Award nomination in the category of 

documentary short subject.

 

” She directed the project and he was producer and director of photography," Sheldon said. 

 

“Both my wife and I grew up in West Virginia and this is our home, so we, like everyone else in the state, are very affected by the rise in opioid and heroin addition,” Sheldon said. “We wanted to tell a story of resilience and hope and this project is special the three women we featured - Jan Rader, Judge Keller and Necia Freeman – represent that hope and resilience and show what it takes to fight this crisis.”

 

Though Sheldon's work has been commissioned and featured on The New York Times, Mashable, CNN, GoPro, The Weather Channel and Fast Company, among other outlets, he is perhaps most proud of “Heroin(e),” filmed right in Huntington, West Virginia. The project earned a 2018 Academy Award nod, as well as one for the 2018 Cinema Eye Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking. It premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival and was featured at The Obama Foundation Summit and Meet the Press Film Festival.

 

“That film has had such an impact for both the people in the film and for my wife and I as filmmakers,” he said.

 

That work has also inspired a future project.

 

“We have a new feature-length film coming out in just a couple of months about four men going through recovery from addiction which took more than two years to make and was a really emotionally tough film to create - but we're very proud of the honesty and vulnerability we were able to capture,” Sheldon said.

 

Sheldon and his wife are both self-employed in Charleston and do much of their work together. Recently named a 2018 USA Fellow by United States Artists, McMillion's work has captured various industry nods. Her 2013 documentary "Hollow" - which examines the future of rural America from the perspective of West Virginians - received a Peabody, Emmy nomination and 3rd Prize in the World Press Photo Multimedia Awards. She was named one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaking Magazine and one of "50 People Changing The South" by Southern Living Magazine. She has done reporting for Frontline PBS, New York Times Op-Docs, People Magazine and The Washington Post, among other high profile media companies. She is founding member of All Y'all Southern Documentary Collective,

 

The reason Sheldon quit his job for a film making career was to live a flexible, adventurous lifestyle and live a life filled with as many interesting and random experiences as possible.

 

He got that. And much more.

 

 

“With ‘Heroin(e)’ and our forthcoming film ‘Recovery Boys,’ the power of film to change minds, enact change, and influence leaders has really become apparent,” he said.

 

For example, the main subject in "Heroin(e),” Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader, was just named to Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list, not only a huge honor, but amazing for West Virginia and the southwest region. The film was also screened at The Obama Foundation Summit in DC before state representatives and in dozens of cities around the country. 

 

The adventure factor continues to be in full swing. His work has captured deep sea diving, fly fishing, mountaineering – and now, boxing.

 

“I am currently filming boxers around Appalachia ?and have been for about a year,” he said. “I love experiencing what my subjects are experiencing and see what it's like to do what I'm usually filming instead.”

 

So, obviously, Sheldon took up boxing; learning the basics and training hard to get in as good of shape as possible. That, in turn, led to him entering a local Toughman competition.

 

“I had no idea how I would do, but have been an athlete my whole life, so I knew that if I worked hard, I could at least be fitter than most of the other fighters,” he said. “Surprisingly, I won my first three fights and made it to the finals.”

 

Sheldon eventually lost the championship fight, but he was officially named runner-up at the tournament. He’s pretty happy about that, he said.

 

“I'm not sure I'll ever enter a competition again, but I continue to use boxing for training and sparring with some other boxers near my house in Charleston,” he said. “It's definitely different than most of the other sports I partake in, so it's good to shock the system now and again.”

 

Life has led Sheldon to some interesting places since his 2004 BHS graduation. What’s next?

 

"The goal for the next couple of years is to get some backing and a publisher for the boxing project, hopefully as a series, and continue to film interesting, cool, important, fun stories around Appalachia,” he said. “I'd definitely love to add in some travel now and again, especially for work, but right now both my wife and I are focused on telling stories from this region and doing so in an honest and authentic way.”