Interview with Appalshop Documentary Filmmaker Nik Lee

Centered on Appalshop filmmaker Nik Lee, the first episode of Screen Door Queers highlights the importance of storytelling by and for Appalachian people. Through conversations about filmmaking, personal identity, and recovery from climate disasters, the episode emphasizes community, representation, and the power of local media to challenge stereotypes and preserve cultural memory.

This episode is the first in a three-part story focused on queer life in Eastern Kentucky. The series is produced by students in a Media and Communications course at Warren Wilson College. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey folks, welcome to today's episode of Screen Door Queers. This podcast is a production of the Meeting of Communications Queer Migrations course at Warren World Intelligence.

SPEAKER_06 0:20

Welcome to today's episode of Screen Door Queers. I'm Emily Arden, your host, and today is day two of our trip in Kentucky. We started the day by driving 40 minutes to Jenkins, a former coal town that at its height in 1950 had a population of just under 7,000. It now has roughly 1,800, with the coal mine closing in the 1980s. Our destination was Apple Shop, an organization that started under the name of the Appalachian Film Workshop in 1969. It began in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and prioritized three things. One, teaching young Appalachians how to operate film equipment, two, boosting the economy through vocational training, and three, offering a counter-narrative to the one that made Eastern Kentucky the poster child for American poverty. By 1975, it had turned into Apple Shops and had an annual funding of $1 million. Over the decades, it expanded to have a photography workshop, literary journal, record label, roadside theater, film festival, and radio, the WMMT 88.7. It even moved to a large former bottling plant, and by the end of the 90s, Apple Shop was nestled into the community and had increased its budget by over 400%. Now, in 2026, Apple Shop has an archive believed to be one of the largest, if not the largest, archives of Appalachian culture. When we arrived at Apple Shop, we were eagerly ushered into the archives by Aaron, Hannah, and Shane. There we did introductions and spoke of scars from our respective natural disaster experiences. Theirs, the 2022 Kentucky Floods, and ours, Hurricane Helene, which hit us in 2024. Our instructor, Beck Banks, had been through both. Shane walked us through the archives, showing us projects they were working on. At the end of the tour, Shane mentioned their tape section, where they cleaned flood muck off of tapes, attempting to restore them. Many of the tapes there were Nick's and filled with childhood memories their mother had carefully recorded. After a quick lunch break, we met back up, and as the rest of our class helped Shane move boxes, myself and Callum sat down to interview Nick. Alrighty. Well, I'm Emily. It's really nice to meet you. I'm a communications and political science double major from Warren Wilson. So we're here on a trip just sort of documenting queer Appalachia, and just we had the great opportunity to meet with y'all at Apple Shop. I'd love if you could just introduce yourself with whatever capacity you feel comfortable with. So your pronouns, first name, last name, maybe your job title, um, and then sexuality if you feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

My name is Nick Lee, and I work at Apple Shop as the internal media coordinator, and which is essentially a filmmaker at Apple Shop. My pronouns are uh she, he, or they. I identify as gender fluid and asexual, and I got some cheers from the audience. Uh I make documentaries here. I think I worked at Apple Shop for about two years now.

SPEAKER_06 3:33

Why don't you talk a little bit about where you grew up and where you call home?

SPEAKER_04 3:36

Yeah, um I grew up in Awesome, Kentucky, and I've lived in Appalachia all my life. I recently moved to Whitesburg, downtown Whitesburg, which is my first time being on my own. I went to school at Moorhead State, um, which is in Kentucky. Um, and I majored in convergent media and paralegal studies because I wanted to be a lawyer starting out, but uh changed my mind about that. But yeah, uh I've lived here all my life and um uh I don't really want to move away.

SPEAKER_06 4:10

So what about Appalachia is so accapating for you?

SPEAKER_04 4:14

The people are a lot different than any people you meet outside of here. The mountains, I like small, underwhelming places. Uh I really like the vibe of Appalachia. I feel like it's very calming. Um it's beautiful. And I think everybody loves where they grew up, so that's that's just natural for me.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

Absolutely. In terms of how you started your job here at Apple Shop, how did you find out about Apple Shop? Number one, and then number two, why did you decide to come and work here?

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Growing up, I heard things about Apple Shop. They have made a lot of films about coal mining, and a lot of those films were pro-union, and um I think people get get it misconstrued that pro-union means that you don't care about like there being coal here. People saw Apple Shop as anti-coal. At least my family did, and that's a big deal because that was our only way of having jobs here at one point, which that's pretty much over now. But my family was always kind of like uh Apple Shop's weird. Only like weird people work there, anti-coal people work there, they're not like us. And then I did an internship at Apple Shop, and I was like, well, that's just like completely untrue. And they've made a lot of documentaries about the struggle of coal miners trying to get a fair wage and benefits and like a way to make a living, and that that's what those those films were about. It was not anti-coal. But I heard about Apple Shop from an internship at school. Basically, they were like, you can make a film and and make money over the summer, and I was like, Well, that doesn't sound that difficult. I was already in a journalism class at my high school, so I knew a little bit about filmmaking, but I did an internship there, and I did it for two more years after that, and then I was like, Well, I think I want to do this for a living, so I went to school for it. I did convergent media for my one of my majors, and then I did uh contract work for a year for them, and then now I'm full-time, so I really like working here. I guess I've been working here technically for like six years, but uh full-time for two.

SPEAKER_06 6:32

So in terms of your job, what are sort of projects that you work on?

SPEAKER_04 6:37

Right now it's like a mixed bag. I like to do things that involve a lot of advocacy for Appalachian people. The last piece that I did was about a rate increase. Um, we have one utility company, just one, so you know how that goes. Uh, there's like a monopoly here, and they can pretty much raise the rates whenever they want to. So our bills are astronomically high. And we're the second poorest congressional district in the country, so high bills, and it's a poor area. It is really tough on folks when the Lady Company raises the rates. So um I did a very short documentary about the rate increase, and then I've done work with the Archive recently about their recovery after the flood in 2022, and then I also did a film about the flood in 2022. So yeah, I am working on a project that I haven't really gotten started on yet. I've done a lot of planning called Queer Jobs, which is about LGBTQ plus people in Appalachia and what they do for work. And most of the time it's odd jobs, so I called it queer jobs because people around here, when you call something odd, they call it queer. Which I I think is it might be uh distasteful to some people, but I think it's endearing. But yeah, uh that's pretty much what I'm working on as of you know the last year or so.

SPEAKER_06 8:05

Do you think that the work you do is important? And I'm assuming you're going to say yes. I would hope you say yes, and and why.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

I think Apple Shop got started as like a voice for Appalachian people to tell their own story, and I still think that's the mission here. So absolutely, I think this work is important. I think we still need to be telling our story, you know, 50 years later. Because I think when people try to do stories about Appalachia, and that is appreciated, um, they don't always get it wrought. So it's important to actually get the opinions of Appalachians um and have actual Appalachians doing some of this work so that we can represent ourselves in a good way.

SPEAKER_06 8:52

Yeah. I mean, in terms of representation, how do you think your identity, whether that's sexual or um your queer identity, your Appalachian identity, how does that influence your work?

SPEAKER_04 9:04

Oh, it heavily influences it, yeah. I have a lot of queer friends, and that was a big reason I made or I'm going to make queer jobs. Because a lot of them do a lot of odd jobs just to survive in this place. There's not a lot of jobs around here that aren't healthcare, and coal jobs are declining a lot. So we just all do very strange jobs to make a living, and thought that was that was pretty important to talk about. But yeah, my uh uh uh identity is in a lot of my work, a lot of my work. It's hard not to have it in my work, but yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:40

Circling back to sort of your childhood, young adulthood, what was it like growing up here as a queer person?

SPEAKER_04 9:48

Growing up here as a queer person, I didn't really pay attention to it until actually had a good support system, I guess is what you would call it. So for like 18, 19 years, I didn't acknowledge it. I was just like, I'm not gonna get into that right now. I got too much going on. But when once I had like a good support system, I was like, well, maybe I should explore what my identity actually is and how I feel. But I think it's the same story for a lot of people around here that are queer. Kind of just internalize it, keep it to yourself until you're in a place where you feel that you can express yourself in that way.

SPEAKER_06 10:34

And do you feel like in uh the South or in Appalachia to be specific, do you feel like now as an adult you feel like you can express yourself and and to be out and be proud?

SPEAKER_04 10:44

I think so, yeah. And I think that acceptance is growing as the years pass. I think we're having a lot more proud events here, which is nice to see. And I love going to a local pride and not having to travel like I don't know, to like Pockville or Lexington to go to Pride, but there's always some pushback, but that's everywhere. But uh I think acceptance here is I don't know, typically better than than what I've seen outside of here. Maybe that's controversial. But yeah, I've always felt accepted, you know, within my little group of friends and within my workplace and stuff, which is nice.

SPEAKER_06 11:29

Yeah, it's important to feel at home and safe. What are you hoping to accomplish right now with this role and just as a person moving throughout the world?

SPEAKER_04 11:38

I'm hoping to keep making films that speak to people, even if you know it has nothing to do with my identity or what's going on in my life. I want to make sure that people that are struggling with something else are represented in a fair in a supportive way. I feel like a lot of people around here would like some kind of representation besides like what like a national news broadcast would have to say about us, which is completely different than what we would have to say about us. So I don't know. Did that answer the question?

SPEAKER_06 12:14

It did. Uh I can't remember what it was.

unknown 12:17

You're good.

SPEAKER_06 12:19

I think that you touched a little bit on a project you're sort of wanting to start on. Do you have any other sort of future aspirations and projects you want to accomplish?

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Yeah, a future project that I want to work on. I've named Zombie Coal, just like the remains of the coal industry. I'm sure y'all saw um passing through here, like old coal mines um and these structures that look abandoned and they're rusted and falling apart. I'm very like drawn to those places. I want to learn more about them and who worked at them and who's responsible for cleaning this up or repurposing it because there is a a law that puts the duty on these coal companies to repurpose the land that they used. And most of the time that doesn't happen. So this stuff just sits here and we look at it every single day. I think that project would be uh exploring who used to own those mines and who used to work at them. And it kind of serves like a dual purpose because both of my papaws were coal miners and I don't know anything about where they worked, what they did in the mines. Like they they're just I think most of the men who worked in the coal mines back in the day, they just didn't really talk about it. They just went to work and came home. So I I really as a young person here, I want to learn more about the coal mining industry, how it used to be, and the people that used to work in them. I would love to learn more about that. So I know other people probably would too. So that's kind of why I want to make that.

SPEAKER_06 13:55

Do you have a memory that stands out when you think about the work that you've created in the past?

SPEAKER_04 14:03

Good memory of like a film I've worked on, or something like that.

SPEAKER_06 14:06

You could even tie in like a moment from like the production career you've had or if you've interviewed someone that really felt special or Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Yeah, I think I in the 2022 floods in Appalachia, I was like homeless for a little bit. Like I lost all of my possessions, my family did too, and uh, you know, brought some tapes here that were flooded. Um and Shane from the archive here. I was like, Shane, do you think there's any chance that we could fix these? And I was I was like, there's no way. Because they've been sitting in mud and and flood water for who knows how long and haven't been touched. And I guess like a good memory of my the s the expanding years of my career was like gathering around like a monitor and watching those tapes be they were restored. Like I got to see them for the first time ever. So that that was a big moment for me. That's a stand-up moment. And I I got to get that on film as well on camera that moment. So that that was a nice thing that I got to experience.

SPEAKER_06 15:19

So I imagine it must be really rewarding to sort of connect the work you do with your own personal life. I know you're just sort of talking about watching those tapes for the first time. Do you have anything else to add on that connection?

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Yeah, uh I'm very thankful that um I work in a place where this kind of thing is possible. Like I can go to work and just see like crazy stuff happening, like monumental stuff happening every day. And I guess I'm really thankful for that. I don't know if that answers the question.

SPEAKER_06 15:54

No, it does, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

Yeah, I think Apple Shop is a great place and I would love to see it live on. We're all just kind of worried about uh the grant situation, national grants and stuff. So I am worried about its future, but I hope it can carry on because stuff like this, like I don't think there's anywhere else, like in a 500-mile radius where you can get your flood of tapes cleaned and restored. That's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_06 16:26

What do you think Apple Shop means for the local community or just Appalachian community in general?

SPEAKER_04 16:32

I think it differs what it means to local people, Apple Shop. I think if you know what we're doing, it has an impact. But if you don't know, people have speculations about what you're doing. So I always go out of my way to be like, this is what we're doing, you know, like these are the films we're making, these are the projects we're making. I always try to the people I get people that are like blue collar and they're like, well, I don't like Apple Shop because of this. I'm like, well actually it it it's like this way, like we're we're trying to be there for the community and help y'all be there for y'all. I I try to get it in people's minds that we're we're not here to like attack or offend or uh misrepresent anybody. We're doing our best to serve the community.

SPEAKER_06 17:24

I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us. It was really great. We watched the film yesterday, like strings. Yes. It was a touching watch. We were all kind of in tears.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Um I'm excited to see people watch it. Um because usually I just watch uh I watch people at Apple Shop watching it. Um so it's nice to see people outside of Apple Shop watching it. I had a lot of fun working on that, even though it was really sad.

SPEAKER_06 17:48

But yeah, and it was a healing in a way to sort of work on that piece. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

Seeing my childhood memories on that monitor was was crazy. Because I didn't think I was gonna get that back.

SPEAKER_06 18:01

After our interview with Nick, Shane took us to the old hospital in Jenkins, a property Appleshop bought in 2023 and has plans to renovate. The dream is to restore the building and store the archives there. Have musicians play, have residencies, display Appalachian history, and more. Apple Shop is on the quest for funding to make that dream happen. Shane then took us 20 minutes away to Whitesburg, Kentucky, to the formal Apple Shop location. Walking us through the site, he detailed the extent of the damage and its rich history. Due to the building being along a river, it's not a matter of if it'll flood again, but when. Next steps for the building are unknown, as Apple Shop struggles to secure the millions of dollars in funding needing to make it flood safe. We then walked into the downtown of Whitesburg to WMMT 88.7, Possum Radio, and had the privilege of speaking with Shane on air about ourselves and the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Uh we got some people from Warren Wilson with us today. Uh Emily, correct?

SPEAKER_06 19:07

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

So would you like to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_06 19:09

Absolutely. I am a senior at Warren Wilson College, and I am a double major with political science and communications. A fun fact about Warren Wilson is we're also a work college. So my role on campus is I work 16 hours a week running the student newspaper, which is the Echo.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Uh so what what have you experienced here in Appalachia that has I guess like really gotten to you?

SPEAKER_06 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Or here in Eastern Kentucky. I can I need to stop saying that. You're in eastern Kentucky, you're all in Appalachia. Oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_06 19:35

So Swanov is in Western North Carolina. I think something that's really stuck out to me is that we also went through a pretty devastating climate event with Hurricane Helene. And I think we all have a lot of similar stories to tell. And what stuck out to me is the community and how much we all love each other and want to help each other. And I've just been blown away by what Apple Shop is up to and what you're up to, Shane. And it's been a real pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

Well, it sounds a lot like uh like Eastern Kentucky here, just everybody's uh out to help each other, you know, uh the best we can because that's all we got. All right, who's next? So so Donnie, uh uh would you like to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_05 20:10

Yeah, uh my name is Donnie. I'm a senior in creative writing and environmental studies at Warren Wilson College, and this is my third time in eastern Kentucky and exploring stuff with Apple Shop, and I'm really happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

During this trip, what's really what's really spoken to you?

SPEAKER_05 20:24

So I'm from New Orleans and I was alive for Katrina, and then I was in Asheville for Hurricane Helene, and I've done a lot of flood relief work here. And I think one of the things that's really spoken to me is just in talking with you folks at Apple Shop, um, who were also here for that, how similar it is to experience floods everywhere. Uh, Erin was talking about how you kind of forget that not everybody knows what happened, and you forget that not everybody experienced it. That's just, I think that communal experience, even across vast spaces, really speaks to me a lot.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

I I said it once when we were visiting um the site where uh the Buffalo Creek incident happened, and I was telling the staff there, I was like, isn't it weird how all these clubs just bring us together?

SPEAKER_05 21:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

But I mean, you it's it's a it's a thing where we have to take care of each other. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

I'm a biology major at Warren Wilson College. I'm from Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

What's really spoken out to you during this trip?

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Well, it's really even coming to um Appalachia entirely has been so completely different from where I lived in Colorado. It takes a lot of work to understand the way the world works as a biology major, but it takes a different kind of work entirely to see how people work.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Wonderful. So uh let's see, who do we got left here? Hey, so this is Jay. Hello. Hello. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

I'm a sociology and anthropology major, just like Eso. I'm pretty new to Warren Wilson. This is only my second semester there. I came up from Atlanta, so I've lived in the South my whole life, but I haven't had too much exposure to Appalachian. So it's been really cool to get to learn that.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

What's really spoken out to you uh during this trip?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

I'm a queer person myself. And so getting to see the parallels between queer culture and Appalachian culture, specifically like the focus on hardship and like community and like being really there for the people around you because no one else is going to be there for you if you're not there for your community. And that has been really powerful and really fun to see that parallel and explore that.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

So who else we got here? So uh Beck, why don't you tell us about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Yeah, I'm Beck Banks. I'm an assistant professor of communications, uh uh Warren Wilson College. And well, I'm originally from East Tennessee. This is the first time I've gone the road with students. It's been a really profound experience.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Um, that's really cool. So, uh, what has been impactful on your visit here?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Well, you know, that this is this class is actually a queer migration study uh and looking at Central Appalachia. And I think that just learning how much of a community we already are with each other, uh, getting to know each other better. And then I mean, Apple Shop has been so phenomenal and open-armed, and this has just been a hell of a tour we've had today, and now we're on the radio. I just think that ultimately, like for all this we'll do intellectually and how much it will help us all in some way or another, what it does for the spirit. There's so much hope within this and so much progress it's going forward, and that's something that sometimes when we're looking at our disasters that gets left behind. Uh, we talk about the trauma instead of the remarkable resilience and the strides that we're making forward.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

Wow. Well, well put, Beck. Well put. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 23:26

Thanks for joining us on today's episode of Screen Door Queers. A special thank you to all those at Apple Shop who welcomed us, particularly Nick Lee, for letting us interview her and Shane for being such a terrific host. If you want to help Apple Shop continue its mission of preserving Appalachian history, go to APPAL S H O P dot org, Appleshop.org to donate. From there, you can click the green support us button, where you'll have the option to pick where the donation money goes from Possum Radio to the archive. Thank you to Beck Banks and Warren Wilson College for making this possible. Today's episode was written, edited, and produced by Emily Arden Cobb.