Just Films Presents: King Coal
Written by Arlo Grey MacFarland
Pittsburgh film festival Just Films is celebrating its 10th anniversary this 2025 season! This month, the festival presents indie film King Coal October 20, 2025. A collaborative effort between Chatham University, Point Park University, the YWCA and more, Just Films highlights deeper societal issues in the form of local film. Often making the viewer ask introspective questions about life and the world, this festival brings something different to Pittsburgh’s arts.
The event will be hosted at Point Park University’s George Rowland White Theater, located at 414 Wood Street downtown. This festival centers around the film King Coal, a film by Elaine McMillon Sheldon about the power that coal has over the Appalachian region.
“...The film transcends time and place, emphasizing the ways in which all are connected through an immersive mosaic of belonging, ritual, and imagination. Emerging from the long shadows of the coal mines, KING COAL untangles the pain from the beauty, and illuminates the innately human capacity for change,” writes the Just Films website.
Pittsburgh has historically used coal in its steel processing as a center in the rust belt, making this film hit close to home. Although the coal mining process has been machinized and is not the only power source nowadays, we are still feeling the economic, social and medical effects of the industry.
King Coal addresses these issues and more, looking to the future of the rust belt and how the dwindling coal industry makes social impacts. Filmmaker McMillon Sheldon aims to immerse the audience into the lives of the characters living in the story and the region.
Just Films serves light refreshments before the film presentation at 6 p.m., with a Q&A panel following. The panelists include Heaven Sensky of the Center for Coalfield Justice, Shaun Slifer of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and Angela Wiley of Communitopia to discuss the implications of the film with the audience. Welcoming discourse and open questioning of the film, the panelists encourage audience participation.
This event is free and open to the public, with an RSVP link here. For more information on Just Films and their upcoming 10th anniversary season, you can visit their website at https://justfilmspgh.org/.
