Finding the Gold Within goldthefilm.com	Awakening from Sorrow	In the Shadow of Huma's Wing	Phoenix Dance	We Are Here Together	I Will Not Be Sad in This World	Voices from Inside

Why I Make Films

“Most important to me is to listen beneath the surfaces of images and facts, allowing the deeper truth of a person or situation come to light. I make films about the forces that come through people – the spirit or universal story that wants to be known.

With my films I am inviting my audiences into the realm of poetry and listening, a state of mind that counterbalances the busy world of media. I invite them to see with the inner eye. As a storyteller I spin and weave layer upon layer, allowing viewers to join with their own imaginations weaving and spinning still long after the film is over.”

"The work of Karina Epperlein has a depth of sensitivity and insight that dissolves the often blinding exterior of appearance into the simplicity of the commonly shared human condition. In her extraordinary work the eye of the camera is actually the eye of the heart and mind experiencing the reason and feeling behind any particular circumstance.”
—Alonzo King, choreographer, teacher and founder of Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dance Center

“Karina Epperlein has developed instincts for visual language of cinema at once beautiful and thought provoking.”
—Tony Kashani, Ph.D., author of "Deconstructing the Mystique: An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Cinema"

A native of Germany, Karina Epperlein has worked in Europe and the U.S. for the past thirty-six years a filmmaker, theater artist, and teacher. After arriving in San Francisco in 1982, she developed her own poetic vision of theatre, writing, directing and performing original pieces. Karina's lifelong teaching and experiences include movement, voice and creative expression as well as 27 years of teaching T'ai chi Ch'uan, breath and sound.

The past eighteen years she has been a “dependent” documentary filmmaker who has been very fortunate to follow the lead of her fiercely independent spirit, often defying conventions and the notion of art as commercial enterprise. Karina’s work looks for the light in darkness, addressing the themes of transformation and healing. Her award-winning documentaries give face and voice to the unseen in society, highlighting their unique stories and the universal issues that link them to history.

Her earlier video pieces Labyrinthian (1984) and i.e.Deutschland (1988) were followed by the documentaries Voices From Inside (1996, women in prison & their children), Women's Rites (2000, the Halprin Life/Art Process), I Will Not Be Sad In This World (2001, portrait of 94 year old Armenian woman surviving genocide), We Are Here Together (2003, charter high school experiment & the young people’s growth), Phoenix Dance (2006, a one-legged dancer's return to the stage), In the Shadow of Huma's Wing (2008, Somatic Psychotherapy with Louise Barrie), and Awakening From Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997 (2009, the children of the Disappeared in the Dirty War).

Phoenix Dance (2006) has been screening in more than 100 different festivals and theatres all over the world. It was“shortlisted” for the 2006 Oscar Nomination for Short Documentary, and won numerous international awards, including a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Int’l Film Festival. To this piece—which she also photographed and edited—she brought her past experience as professional dancer and choreographer.