Kerrin Sheldon: Filmmaker, Net Worth, 'Heroin(e)' & Facts To Know

Hopefully, you have watched the film, “Heroin(e)”, which was directed Elaine McMillion Sheldon and produced by her husband, Kerrin Sheldon. In the heart-wrenching documentary three women who include a judge, a social worker and a fire chief, do everything in their power to combat the opioid epidemic facing the West Virginia community. The documentary has made Kerrin Sheldon and his filmmaker wife Elaine McMillion Sheldon quite popular and is nominated for an Oscar 2018. Another documentary by Sheldon’s wife, “Hollow” received a Peaboy Award in 2014. Sheldon received the Peaboy Award in video editor’s category. The awards helped them increase their net worth. Sheldon received the World Press Photo for Innovative Storytelling for in 2013. Last year, “Heroin(e)” was nominated for the World Press Photo for Innovative Storytelling. Filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon and her husband Kerrin Sheldon are based in West Virginia. The couple has made several awards winning documentaries including “Hollow” and “Heroin(e).” From the latter, you get to see the story of the city with an overdose rate ten times higher than the national average. Jan Rader, a Fire Chief, spends most of her time reviving people who have overdosed. Judge Patricia Keller hands down empathy and orders in the drug court, while Necia Freeman of Brown Bag Ministry feeds the women who sell their bodies to buy drugs. “Heroin(e)” shows the chain of compassion that holds the town together.

On January 23 this year, it was announced that the Elaine McMillion Sheldon and her husband Kerrin Sheldon had been nominated for an Oscar 2018, for the short documentary, “Heroin(e).” Sheldon directed the 39-minute long film and her husband, Kerrin Sheldon. Sheldon stated that the hardest part of the documentary was filming people at their lowest moment in their lives. Shortly after graduating, Kerrin Sheldon worked at a travel company before meeting with Elaine Sheldon. After two years, they started Xeno Productions, a company for making short videos. They have an Instagram page for the company. Since both are from West Virginia, Sheldon and his wife decided to dive into the opioid crisis because of their passion. Sheldon was passionate about storytelling while his wife, Elaine Sheldon was passionate about filmmaking. It took the couple almost a year to work on the documentary. The Sheldons were the ones doing the shooting and the editing. In the middle of the project, the Center for Investigative Reporting which was looking for documentaries about women making change in the community and it funded the rest of the production because their net worth wasn’t enough to fund it.

Sheldon said that he works with his wife, Elaine Sheldon and it’s not a big deal since they are married. Everything is intertwined, and they share ideas on how they will approach the scene creatively. They also decide if someone is the right one to tell the story beautifully, together of course. Sheldon is the kind of person who loves to his things done in order and he is a traditional person. Sheldon added that he liked to have a process that worked and repeated it. He is more of a risk taker and suggests what camera should be used and the lens they should try. His wife, Mrs. Sheldon is often scared to try something new and so they challenge each other to be on creativity but still maintain reliability and trustworthy.

When some of their subjects have their schedules, for instance, a court date that is three hours away, they manage to be there on time. That’s one of the reasons they prefer to live around. Sheldon and his filmmaker wife never thought they would go back to West Virginia, but they had to for them to tell a great story from their home. Sheldon said that knowing a place very well is important, and when it’s misrepresented, and he always do everything to help right the wrongs. He added that the films are not the ones to do that but it his own goal.

Their current projects are between Morgantown and Charleston. Kerrin Sheldon is directing the projects alongside his wife. Before that, they were in Chattanooga where they were documenting a family that had moved to the area from Mexico. Before that, the Sheldons were in Miami where they did a Mashable series about the invasive lionfish. Their previous project was from Albania and Scotland for Kerrin Sheldon’s travel series. They stayed there for three weeks and even had an apartment, something very new for them in the past four years.

Sheldon never thought that his project would feature on Netflix. It was a shock to him. He said there were other channels like Field of Vision, Frontline and another one working on women’s issues, Refinery29. There is also a new one known as New York Times Op-Docs. He advised other filmmakers not to upload films on YouTube or Vimeo to have fewer views.

Sheldon’s net worth is not known, but he must be having quite a decent net worth from his films.

We all hope that Sheldon will win the Oscar 2018 Award. We are also hopeful that we will get to see more of his projects this year. You can show your support by following him on Instagram.