31 minute read
Student Profiles
Students Prove Work and Play Can Mix WRITTEN BY ALLY KENNEDY
For most people, a trip to an amusement park is an annual summer tradition. For Dan Dipiazzo, a College of Media Data Marketing Communications (DMC) graduate student, it’s just a day on the job.
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“It’s hard to imagine a business more fun than theme parks, so I’m very lucky to work in this industry,” said Dipiazzo. “It’s really rewarding to know that the day someone spends with us will probably be one of the most memorable days of their life.”
As the vice president of marketing for SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica, Dipiazzo is responsible for all marketing and sales functions for the flagship theme park. In the highly competitive and amusement park-saturated Orlando market, Dipiazzo is responsible for determining ways to set SeaWorld apart. With a main goal of driving attendance to the parks, he oversees advertising, public relations, digital marketing, direct marketing and promotions.
“There are really no two days alike in this job. While sometimes that can be difficult, it’s also what makes it fun and exciting. The most gratifying part of my career is helping to launch new business opportunities,” said Dipiazzo, who was part of the communications team that unveiled and helped launch the new Discovery Cove theme park.
Dipiazzo has been working in the theme park industry for nearly 20 years – first, as a public relations consultant at AnhauserBusch’s theme park division, then as a marketing vice president for Busch Gardens and Water Country USA. Previously, he was the senior vice president and partner in the consumer practice at FleishmanHillard. Dipiazzo began his career as a reporter and then editor at a daily newspaper in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
Even with his career already established, Dipiazzo yearned to expand his professional knowledge, which led him to enroll in the College’s online DMC program.
“The media and consumer landscape is constantly changing, and it requires a marketer to stay plugged in and always able to come up with new solutions,” said Dipiazzo. “That’s actually one of the reasons I was most interested in pursuing the Data Marketing Communications degree—because it’s critical to understand data and unlock the power it can provide marketing communications professionals.”
Dipiazzo recently completed the Brand Data Collection and Visualization course—something he does on a daily basis as part
of his career. He came into the course believing he was already pretty well-versed on the topic. “I have actually learned so many things I didn’t know that I can put into practice right now,” he said.
Other DMC courses include audience segmentation, message customizations, social media optimization and campaign metrics and assessment.
Balancing work, school and life can be a challenge, but for Dipiazzo, prioritizing is key. He credits the WVU DMC program with keeping him engaged and motivated by providing practical knowledge he can immediately put to use in his career.
“The DMC master’s program isn’t just theoretical; this is the real world of marketing communications today,” said Dipiazzo. “And, we don’t have to wait until our degrees are completed to start reaping the benefits.”
The Data Marketing Communications graduate program is the first master’s degree in the country that specifically focuses on how to use data to drive and shape marketing communications. DMC students complete the program in a cohort, beginning their first semester with an introductory course and taking courses in sequence that build to the creation of a comprehensive marketing communications campaign for a real-world client of their choice.
“I’ve been a sports fan my entire life, and I think I’ve always wanted to do some type of sports journalism,” explained Norman. “I watched a lot of games with my dad as a kid, and I realized over time that this could be a career path for me.”
I’ve been a sports fan my entire life...I realized over time that this could be a career path for me.
JOEL NORMAN {BSJ, 2018)
Norman chose WVU because of its strong journalism program and extracurricular opportunities that would enhance his resume.
While at WVU, Norman was a sports reporter and baseball producer for U92, the campus radio
DAVID SMITH
station, a beat writer covering sports for the Daily Athenaeum, and he covered sports for “WVU News,”
Journalism grad Joel Norman gives the play-by-play.
In 2006, Joel Norman discovered his childhood hero when he went to a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game to see rookie Sidney Crosby play. Just over a decade later, the College of Media Journalism senior found himself in the Penguins locker room as a radio intern, capturing post-game sound bites from Crosby, by now the undisputed star of the Penguins’ franchise.
During the past school year, Norman spent his weekends as communications intern for the Pittsburgh Penguins Radio Network. For a life-long hockey fan like Norman, working for the Penguins was a dream come true.
“I was thrilled about this opportunity because I’ve always wanted to be a play-by-play sports broadcaster,” said Norman. “I grew up listening to Mike Lange and Phil Bourque call Penguins games on the radio and couldn’t wait to help out the broadcasts in any way possible.”
While he wasn’t in a position to call the play-by-play as an intern, Norman played a vital role in helping produce the pre-game and post-game radio shows. His responsibilities included setting up equipment for the shows, running social media accounts, writing scripts and capturing press conference audio clips from coaches and players to run on the air. the College’s TV newscast. He also worked with Eric Minor, the director of careers and opportunities, to secure internships with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, a professional soccer team, and the Butler BlueSox collegiate summer baseball team, in addition to the Penguins. “From the first time I met Joel, it was clear that he was more than just a sports fan,” Minor said. “He is absolutely serious about the role storytellers and communicators play in connecting fans with a sporting experience and puts his full effort into bringing the game to the fans.”
Norman says the College of Media helped him turn his passion for sports into a career path.
“Through my coursework and by working at U92 and the DA, I felt that I was able to get ample opportunities to develop and shape my reporting, producing and on-air voice,” explained Norman. “Because of these opportunities that WVU gave me, I was able to get an on-air job immediately after graduation. I am beyond grateful for those who helped me along the way.”
As for his dream of becoming a full-time sports broadcaster, Norman is well on his way. After graduating in May, he moved to Wenatchee, Washington, to start his first job as a radio playby-play broadcaster and director of communications for the Wenatchee Applesox Baseball Club.
“If I had to sum Joel up in a single word, it would be ‘respect.’ He was respectful in his one-on-one interactions with his classmates and professors, and he was always respectful of his audiences,” Minor said. “Baseball fans in Washington state are lucky to have him.”
YEARS
WRITTEN BY ERICA LINDSAY | PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID SMITH
Our Emmy-Award winning “WVU News” starts now.
By mid-semester of its 25th year, “WVU News” is a welloiled machine. It’s April 18, 2018, and the crew is taping a special edition 30-minute show.
The studio and control room are two different worlds.
MEGAN BAKER KOLODZIEJ ’08
You can hear a pin Attorney, Conflicts Counsel, The day starts at 8 a.m. drop in the studio, where Crowell & Moring LLP, for the anchors, who made two news anchors and a Washington DC some last-minute hair and news reporter sit behind a makeup adjustments in the high-rise desk with stage My time with “WVU News,” and the Journalism school dressing room. Everyone lights illuminating them. in general, surrounded me with strong and successful else arrives by 8:30 a.m., They are perfection – women. These women not only project intelligence and and taping starts at 9 a.m. perfect demeanor, perfect confidence, but they show that careers in broadcast Once the cameras start expressions, perfectly journalism can vary. Their confidence paired with their rolling, the crew runs professional. They wear belief in each of their students was contagious, and I am through the entire show tiny earpieces and tiny lapel proud to stand on their shoulders as I grow in my career. without stopping. To microphones that you can closely mimic a live show, only see if you know to look there won’t be any postfor them. Off stage, in the production editing. The dark, three camera operators with headsets focus on the students will do as many run-throughs as it takes to get it anchors from behind large Panasonic high-definition studio as close to perfect as possible. cameras, waiting for their cues. Executive producer and senior journalism student Macy
Across the hall in the control room, it’s a different story. Senge holds a 34-page script that she’s been writing and The student technical crew readies the show for its first editing all week. The “WVU News” taping is the culmination run-through, shuffling scripts, checking audio levels and of late nights working through content with Dahlia. And, directing the camera operators as they line up their shots. they’ll start the process all over again next week. The booming voice of their instructor cuts through the chaos. “Noelle, move to your right! Move your entire chair right!” Gina Martino Dahlia, journalism program chair and Week by Week “WVU News” executive producer, shouts to the anchor This past year was Dahlia’s 14th year teaching Journalism through her studio headset, while watching her on the 487, Advanced Video Reporting and Producing. The control room TV monitor. “And somebody help her fix course syllabus details everything from the week by week her necklace!” schedule to the required use of social media, including 15
Behind the Scenes L-R: Katie Forcade, the government and economic development reporter, takes her turn behind the camera this week. Professor Dahlia directs students from the control room. Executive Producer Macy Senge has spent the last week perfecting tips on “How to ‘Tweet’ Professional Content the script for today’s taping. She watches closely to make sure everything goes as planned. and Not Get Fired from Your First Job.”
“This course is a lot of work for the students and for me. each position,” Dahlia said. “It’s important to You have to be really organized,” Dahlia said. “But it pays have this outside perspective from professionals who are off – our students get jobs before they even graduate.” living television news every day and know what the industry
At the beginning of each semester, students in is demanding.” the “WVU News” class are in full preparation mode. In week three, students gather at the “WVU News” They spend the first week of class getting to know one studio for the big announcement. As the popular news and another and the video equipment they’ll use as TV sports anchor positions are named, there are smiles and reporters assigned to cover specific “beats.” Throughout sighs of relief. But there are also some tears. the semester, students will report on both campus and “This is a big moment. ‘WVU News’ is a very well community topics, such as education, crime and courts, regarded program and regional and national newscast local government, health and medicine, and sports. producers actively recruit from here. Making anchor pretty
By week two, the much guarantees you a students will have job after graduation,” petitioned for their said Dahlia. preferred beats and, While anchors are the if interested, readied SARAH KAPIS ’05 most coveted role, each themselves for anchor and Senior TV News Producer student will experience what sports auditions. On the KDKA-TV it’s like to be both in front evening of auditions, the Pittsburgh, PA of and behind the camera. feeling in the air is tense After two weeks of as each of them prepares training and workshops to read a script on camera. I was hired immediately after I graduated because I to ensure everyone
“We record each already had the skills necessary to step into a newsroom knows how to operate audition. Alumni who are and start contributing. Now, 13 years later, I’m an Emmy cameras and other studio working in the field help and Golden Quill award winner working in one of the equipment, the bi-weekly me decide who is right for top newsrooms in the country and I have “WVU News” news routine begins. and Professor Dahlia to thank for it.
Anchors Away Executive Producer Macy Senge and Professor Dahlia go over the script and prep the anchors before they go live. Once taping begins, the crew pushes on without stopping. They’ll do multiple full-episode tapings to get as close to perfect as possible.
MONDAY A news meeting MONDAY Reporters is held during the scheduled STEVE BUTERA ’08 who made show come to class time where students Anchor/Reporter - the television edit lab to pitch three beat reporting WLEX-TV make corrections to their ideas and decide which Lexington, KY packages. Senge and Dahlia stories to pursue. review and edit the show TUESDAY – “WVU News” was like working for a TV station, and p.m. and ready for the cast WEDNESDAY Students Professor Dahlia was the news director. How you told to pick-up. schedule interviews and go that story was not going to be shown to the class; no, on-location to shoot video this was shown STATEWIDE! A big deal! TUESDAY Anchors “standups” to put together rehearse the script at the packages that include sound Media Innovation Center. bites and teasers. THURSDAY Students have individual writing and video script, which is done by 2 WEDNESDAY On-Air conferences at the Media Innovation Center with Dahlia, “For the second newscast, Professor Dahlia and I were while Senge observes, honing her producing skills. Package up until 5 a.m. critiquing and editing scripts,” Senge scripts and videos are critiqued and edited. Dahlia and recalls. “By the end, writing the script came easier, Senge spend a good part of that night watching all the final and I got it done much faster than previous ones. packages and selecting the best to air in the newscast. Rehearsals didn’t take as long. Anchors made fewer mistakes. The control room made their jobs look easy. FRIDAY – SUNDAY Senge writes the show script. We finally got it down.”
ESPNU Teaching Assistant Ryan Decker helps focus the camera.
Year by Year Before Dahlia was teaching and producing “WVU News,” she was a student in the same course, then taught by Maryanne Reed. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Reed is now dean of the College of Media. But, Reed was also the brainchild behind “WVU News,” starting the newscast in 1993 when she joined the College as an assistant professor.
NOTEWORTHY
“WVU News” Awards
TELEVISION ACADEMY FOUNDATION 38TH COLLEGE TELEVISION AWARDS The College Television Awards is a nationwide competition recognizing excellence in student work.
2017 National Emmy Finalist for Best
College Newscast “WVU News - Heroin and Opioids: When Addiction Hits Home,” Producer Megan Saporito.
WVU News was also a National Emmy Finalist in 2015 and won first place for Best College Newscast in America.
2018 BEA FESTIVAL OF MEDIA ARTS The 2018 BEA Festival of Media Arts is an international refereed exhibition of faculty creative activities and a national showcase for student work. This year, BEA received a record 1,541 submissions to the competition.
National Finalist for BEA Best
College Newscast “WVU News - 100 Days in Trump Country,” Producer Ashley Rodgers
National Finalist for BEA Best College News Anchor CJ Harvey, Main News Anchor for “WVU News”
National Finalist for BEA Best
College Sports Anchor Hannah Goetz, Main Sports Anchor for “WVU News”
Making deadline can campus. The studio be tricky when you’re ANDREW equipment was archaic and using VHS cameras and SCRITCHFIELD ’98 always breaking down. old editing equipment. Staff Photographer “I think our class was But Reed had spent NBC News Washington, D.C. special, and we did a lot the previous six years with a little. The old set reporting, anchoring in Martin Hall may have and producing news for Learning to interact with people from all walks of life has been old and antiquated, network affiliates, so her proven to be so valuable in my professional life. Being but the experience was expectations were high. encouraged to go out and tell stories in and around the still special and felt ‘big’
“She had this energy state (and beyond!) really forced me out of my comfort zone in our world,” said Jason and excitement for the and taught me the importance of getting to know people Neal (BSJ, 1999), now news business that was before you can accurately tell their story in a news piece. technical operations contagious,” said Christa manager at NBC Universal. Currey (BSJ, 1994), one of “It’s been wonderful to Reed’s first “WVU News” see the cutting edge leaps students and current the College has made over director of marketing and communications for the JACKIE CAIN ’06 the last 10 years. The new graduates are so equipped WVU School of Pharmacy. Anchor/Producer for the ever-changing “There weren’t many WTAE-TV media landscape, and they hands-on opportunities owe it to the previous in the classroom for classes and leadership that television journalism Every single person in our class worked so hard to get helped light the spark.” students at the time. You our show on the air. If your story didn’t make show, you In 2002, Reed had to get an internship still had an important role to play. The people who work negotiated with University at WBOY or WDTV in behind the scenes are so essential to the show’s success. Relations to move Clarksburg if you wanted “WVU News” into its to learn about working in modern studio space at television. I feel like that One Waterfront Place in changed in the fall of ’93.” Morgantown. Not only was the equipment cutting-edge,
In 1993, the “WVU News” studio was located on the but the WVU video production team was on-hand to second floor of Martin Hall, the oldest building on WVU’s support any technical difficulties.
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS The Society of Professional Journalists recognizes the best collegiate journalism in Region 4 with 2017 Mark of Excellence Awards winners.
SPJ’s Region 4 Mark of Excellence Awards comprises Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. MOE Awards entries are judged by professionals with at least three years of journalism experience. Judges were directed to choose entries they felt were among the best in student journalism.
TV Newscast “WVU News - 100 Days in Trump Country,” Producer Ashley Rodgers
TV In-Depth Reporting “Know your Rights” by Leanne Shinkle
TV Feature Reporting “Water Walk” by Courtney Kramer
TV Feature Reporting “Black lung in the Mountain State” by CJ Harvey
TV General News Reporting
“Texting and Driving Laws” by Leanne Shinkle
TV Sports Reporting “Country Roads” by Elizabeth Haines Two “WVU News” reporters competed in the National SPJ Competition in May. First-place winners will compete at the national level among other regional MOE winners from the 12 SPJ regions. National winners are recognized at the Excellence in Journalism conference in Baltimore.
TV Feature Reporting “Water Walk” by Courtney Kramer
TV Sports Reporting “Country Roads” by Elizabeth Haines
“WVU News” reporters snagged six awards at the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence 2018 Regional Finals.
BRETT ANDERSON ’17
MEGAN SAPORITO ’16 News Producer, WJAC-TV Missouri. “She knows when she has talent, and she expects everyone to be on their A-game. And if someone isn’t, she’ll say something. That’s just part of the industry.”
The most important thing “WVU News” taught me is Within hours of the Wednesday taping of “WVU News,” the to be true to my voice and my ethics. It takes a lot of show is uploaded to WVU’s iTunesU and YouTube channels. integrity to be a journalist, and “WVU News” gave me The show also airs statewide on West Virginia Public a chance to understand what that means not only in Television, on Time Warner Cable in North Central West the industry, but to myself as well. Virginia and on Network West Virginia via Suddenlink Cable. There are also several other outlets that pick up students’ stories and share them with local, statewide
“The difference between our old and new space was and national audiences. These include ESPNU, a division night and day,” said Reed. “The quality of the students’ of ESPN; the web-based news outlet “We Heart West reporting was always high but the professional studio gave Virginia;” the City of Morgantown and Nexstar Media it a more polished look.” Group in West Virginia.
When Reed was named dean of the College of Media in In its 25-year history, “WVU News” has received 2004, she taught and produced her final episode of “WVU recognition on a regional, national and international level. News” and turned the reins over to Dahlia, who had been a In the past five years alone, the program has won more journalism faculty member in the College since 2001. Dahlia than 75 awards including a national Emmy Award for had a lot to offer, including her professional experience as Best College Newscast in the Country and first place a local TV anchor and reporter. But more importantly, she for Best Television Newscast at the Broadcast Education demonstrated the grit and gusto it would take to continue to Association’s Festival of Media Arts. And, according to run and grow the impactful student-run newscast. Dahlia, there’s no sign of slowing down.
“Dahlia puts everything she has into keeping ‘WVU “My glass isn’t just half full, it’s refillable. I’m just News’ among the top college newscasts in the country getting started,” Dahlia said. “And as I always tell my and it shows,” said Brett Anderson (BSJ, 2017), newscast students, ‘Believe it, achieve it. Also, always wear director at CBS affiliate KRCG-TV in Jefferson City, comfortable shoes as a reporter. You’ll thank me later.’”
SOUNDBITE
What is your favorite memory from “WVU News?”
I was in the very first broadcast class taught in fall 1993 by Maryanne Reed. She was fresh from a television station in Rochester, New York, and she had this energy and excitement for the news business that was contagious. There weren’t many hands-on opportunities in the classroom for television journalism students. The campus radio station U-92 was an excellent training ground for aspiring radio broadcasters, but you had to get an internship at WBOY or WDTV in Clarksburg if you wanted to learn about working in TV. I feel like that changed in the fall of ’93. “WVU News” as we know it today had yet to be established. We had no set, VHS cameras and old editing equipment. But Maryanne expected professional, quality stories from us. My favorite memory is of an investigative story that I did about the lack of accessibility downtown for students with disabilities. I teamed up with classmate Scott Briscoe to shoot the story. We invited a student who was wheelchair bound to come along and demonstrate how difficult it was at the time for people with physical disabilities to get around in downtown Morgantown. It was that story that forced me to break out of my shell and ask the important questions—no matter how difficult. I loved doing that story because I felt like we were making a difference.
CHRISTA CURREY ’94 Director of Marketing and Communications, WVU School of Pharmacy
One of my favorite “WVU News” memories was covering Bridge Day at the New River Gorge. Andrew Scritchfield, fellow “WVU News” alum, and I traveled to Fayetteville and had an incredible time covering the event. This was a different type of piece for me. It was not on a set, or the steps of a courthouse, or a pressroom. We were run and gun, and creating content in the field. We climbed up and down hills, ran through mud, slipped on rocks (okay, maybe just me) and did our best to create a visually compelling, yet interesting story. Though I had serious blisters for days, I had caught the bug and fell in love with adventure storytelling.
GRETCHEN PALEK ’98 Co-President, Leftfield Pictures New York City My favorite memory is covering Bridge Day with classmate Gretchen Palek. We put together a feature for the newscast and, more importantly, experienced what life was like as news reporters. That solidified for me what I already knew: that I needed to be out in the field telling stories from where they happen.
ANDREW SCRITCHFIELD ’98 Staff Photographer NBC News in Washington, D.C.
Unscripted!
Dahlia always, always told us that she would never tell us to do something she wouldn’t do. I ended up working on a healthcare story with her. Rightfully so, she always wanted different angles for different shots to vary it up a bit. I’m standing behind my camera recording a sound bite during a speech, and I feel a tap on my left shoulder. I turn around, and I just hear Dahlia say, “follow me.” Next thing I know, we are crawling across the floor in front of the stage to get a different angle for our next soundbite. Keep in mind that this room is filled with hundreds of people. So, when she says she would never make you do anything she wouldn’t do, she’s not kidding.
BRETT ANDERSON ’17 Newscast Director KRCG-TV
KERRIN SHELDON
From West Virginia To the Red Carpet
WRITTEN BY ALLY KENNEDY
In 2016, CNN called Huntington, West Virginia, “America’s drug death capital.”
Since then, West Virginia has become the face of the opioid epidemic. With an overdose death rate 10 times the national average, the narrative being shared about the Mountain State has been bleak.
But, one year after the CNN headline, a West Virginia filmmaker chose to tell a different kind of story about the opioid crisis — one of resilience and hope. Elaine McMillion Sheldon (BSJ, 2009) directed and co-produced the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Heroin(e),” a film focused on three women fiercely dedicated to fighting the opioid crisis in their home community.
Growing up in Appalachia, storytelling has always been deeply rooted in Sheldon’s personal history.
As a child, she remembers listening to Logan County ghost stories and her grandfather’s stories of working as a coal miner.
Sheldon’s love of storytelling led her to major in print journalism. But while at WVU, she also learned how to shoot photographs and video, and she helped launch “West Virginia Uncovered,” a multi-media storytelling and training project for West Virginia’s smaller newspapers. After college, Sheldon added to her skills by studying filmmaking at Emerson University.
Her award-winning film career began with the interactive documentary “Hollow” (hollowdocumentary.com), which examined the future of rural America through the experiences and struggles of people living in McDowell County. The film received a 2014 Emmy nomination and a 2013 Peabody Award, one of the highest honors in broadcast journalism.
Heroin(e) Sirens blare in the background as Jan Rader drives to the scene of another overdose. In route, she explains that the fire department responds to as many as seven overdoses a day—a drastic change from the occasional call they received 20 years ago when she started this job. Rader stops her car and runs up the steps to the apartment of a man in distress. She knocks and yells, “fire department!” —not expecting a response — before throwing her weight against a door to get inside the bathroom where a man has collapsed. She helps drag him into the bedroom and administers naloxone.
REBECCA KIGER
Kerrin and Elaine Sheldon are on the set of “Recovery Boys,” their debut feature-length documentary.
As a first responder and the first female fire chief in West Virginia, Rader is on the front lines fighting the opioid epidemic every day.
Sheldon and her husband, Kerrin, were on the scene when Rader saved that man’s life. They had been in Huntington for a reporting trip on another story when they met three women who changed the course of their project. The women included Rader, Judge Patricia Keller, who presides over Cabell County Drug Court, and Necia Freeman, who founded Brown Bag and Backpacks Ministry that
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ELAINE MCMILLION SHELDON
delivers food and Bible passages Jan Rader, Patricia Keller, Necia Freeman, Elaine Sheldon and Kerrin Sheldon to prostitutes who are addicted. attend the Meet the Press Film Festival with the American Film Institute.
Through these women,
Sheldon saw a story that could offer a stark contrast to the national coverage that has Even after she started shooting, Sheldon wasn’t quite characterized the opioid crisis as a lost cause. Instead of sure what she had. Her original footage sat on a hard letting this epidemic define their community, Rader, Keller drive until Sheldon heard that The Center for Investigative and Freeman were doing something to help solve it. Reporting (CIR) was funding films made by women about women. So, she pitched the concept for “Heroin(e).” After learning that CIR agreed to fund her project, “It’s traumatic to see people Sheldon and her husband returned to Huntington to shoot potentially at their lowest more footage over the following year. Netflix came on board during the editing stage and the film became a Netflix moment, and you wish you “Original Short Documentary.” Sheldon’s goal for “Heroin(e)” was to help decrease the could do more. Hopefully stigma surrounding the epidemic and increase empathy for telling their story and being those who are addicted. With Netflix’s involvement, the film was made available to a worldwide audience, giving it a witness to these things can the exposure that might help reach that goal. In fact, there has been a community screening in almost every state in the help wake the country up.” U.S. where residents are contending with the opioid crisis. “We’re just hoping as many people watch the film as possible and increase education around what addiction is “Huntington has gotten the short end of the stick in and how we can truly be helping people,” said Sheldon. “We a lot of media representation being called the overdose hope the film can do what any good film does, which is get capital of the country,” said Sheldon. “We were impressed people talking.” and surprised by the level of resilience that these three As a documentarian, Sheldon believes it is her job to women and the other people working towards this issue in show people what they need to see and not necessarily what
Huntington represent.” they want to see, but that can be a strain on the filmmaker.
Awards and Honors
2018
USA Fellow
Cinema Eye Awards Nomination: Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking
2016
ADC Young Gun
Communicator Award of Excellence from The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts for “She Does” Podcast
Chicken & Egg’s Breakthrough Filmmaker Award
2015
AIR New Voices Scholars
2014
3rd Prize for the World Press Photo Interactive Documentary Award
Emmy Nominee in New Approaches for Documentary
2013
Peabody Award
Fellow at Future of Storytelling
Filmmaker Magazine’s: 25 New Faces of Independent Film
Praise for “Heroin(e)”
“The past few years have seen a proliferation of narratives that reveal the extent of the opioid crisis, few hold the power of ‘Heroin(e)’” Vanity Fair
“Putting human faces on the crisis”
New York Times
Forbes
Los Angeles Times
“‘Heroin(e)’ shows what’s missing in addressing the opioid epidemic” Variety
“Refreshingly hopeful” Mother Jones
“Grim yet inspirational look at efforts to confront the epidemic of drug addiction” The Washington Post
“It was emotionally hard to come to terms with why we were doing what we’re doing — making sure it helps people and we’re not just documenting it for the sake of documenting it,” explained Sheldon. “It’s traumatic to see people potentially at their lowest moment, and you wish you could do more. Hopefully telling their story and being a witness to these things can help wake the country up.”
The film quickly garnered national media attention after its release. Sheldon has made appearances on several radio and television programs including “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah, “Meet the Press,” and NPR.
The documentary premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival as part of the main program alongside films like “Lady Bird” and “The Shape of Water.” But a highlight for Sheldon was when “Heroin(e)” had the honor of being the only film screened at the Obama Foundation Summit, where she and the three women from the film met the former president and first lady.
The Academy In January 2018, “Heroin(e)” was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Subject, which began a new and exciting chapter in Sheldon’s life as a director. Sheldon, Kerrin and the three heroines featured in the documentary — Rader, Keller and Freeman — made the 2,000-mile journey from West Virginia to the red carpet in Hollywood, California.
Sheldon never dreamed of receiving an Oscar nomination this early in her career. But before she knew it, she was stepping out of her limo at the Dolby Theatre for the 90th Academy Awards in a custom-made gown — donated by designer Joanna Johnson who saw
“Heroin(e)” and wanted to support the filmmaker — while 26.5 million U.S. viewers watched from home.
While “Heroin(e)” didn’t win the Academy Award, Sheldon says she is most rewarded by the impact of the documentary in helping to change perceptions about the people affected by opioid addiction.
“We hope that the international attention that can come from an Academy-Award nomination will only bring more resources and solutions to the ongoing crisis across America,” Sheldon said.
What does a filmmaker do after being nominated for one of the most prestigious film awards in the country? According to Sheldon, exactly what she did before.
“We plan to stay the course and continue to tell stories from our own backyard that move us,” she said. “We’re humbled, honored and excited Elaine and Kerrin for the next steps.” Sheldon attend the
Sheldon’s next project is the documentary, 90th Academy Awards. “Recovery Boys,” set in Aurora, West Virginia, at Jacob’s Ladder Rehab Farm program. The feature-length film follows four men as they go through the recovery process and try to reinvent their lives after years of addiction. It premiered at the 2018 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, Canada, in May and is now available on Netflix.
Available now on Netflix
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