Viewing: March 06,2025
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Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Appalachia has been hit incredibly hard by the terrible opioid epidemic that has ravaged America from coast to coast and from the urban heart of cities to the smallest of rural communities. Some even go so far as to say that an entire generation (maybe two) have been lost to death, incarceration, and traumas of various kinds.
In 2016 and 2017, filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon spent time in and around Huntington, West Virginia – where the effects of the opioid crisis are 10-times more impactful than the national average – and followed a host of community people who are engaged in the fight against the destructive power of heroin, prescription pills, and fentanyl; particularly, Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader who walks the frontlines with first-responders dealing with an unprecedented number of daily overdose crises.
Like Heroin(e), McMillion-Sheldon’s films (Recovery Boys, King Coal) are critically-acclaimed for their unflinching, yet compassionate, portraits of the real issues that define the Appalachia as told directly by the people at the heart of it all. As a native of the region, she is specially adept at telling the stories that need to be told, and proving that, no matter how dire things get, there is always hope for a better future.
About the Speaker
Rebecca Robison-Miller serves as the Senior Director of Community Relations for the Ohio University College of Health Sciences & Professions where she is also an instructor in the Department of Social & Public Health. Rebecca currently leads several initiatives around substance abuse disorder and health disparity for the college in partnership with a wide variety of community partners. Before coming to the university, Rebecca worked in social services and as the director of two local child advocacy non-profit organizations. She is a two-time graduate of Ohio University and involved with a number of local and statewide initiatives, boards and commissions. Rebecca is proud to have grown up in Athens and lives in the community with her husband and daughters.
Check out the rest of our films for the Appalachian Stories series
This series is sponsored by the Ohio Honors Program, University Libraries, College of Health Sciences and Professions, The Department of Social and Public Health, GO Local, University College, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Multicultural Center and The Black Student Cultural Programming Board, Center for Campus and Community Engagement, and The Women’s Center.
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