Jenny Perlin studied film and cultural studies at Brown University, completed her MFA in Film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and postgraduate studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York City. Perlin's films work with and against the documentary tradition, incorporating innovative stylistic techniques to emphasize issues of truth, misunderstanding, and personal history. She has recently completed View from Elsewhere, a look at conditions of political asylum seekers in Switzerland, and Perseverance & How to Develop It, a film about the cultural and social histories of self-help in the United States. Perseverance has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, and through the Experimental Television Center's Finishing Funds program. Perlin's films have screened nationally and internationally, including the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Whitney Museum of American Art, Ann Arbor, Black Maria, Images festivals, the Havana Biennial, SF Cinematheque, Pacific Film Archive, Walker Art Center, and Kino Arsenal, Berlin. Exhibitions include: P.S. 1/MoMA, NY, KunstWerke, Berlin, Drawing Center, NY, Shedhalle, Zurich, Queens Museum, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, and the Expo 02, Switzerland. My films stem from what is now recognized as the 'non-fiction,' or 'essay-film' tradition. An interdisciplinary approach, with innovative use of sound, voice, structure, combined with interviews and in-depth research into a subject, is where I locate my filmmaking practice. These works are meant for festivals, classrooms, galleries, and meetings alike, and are designed to expand the parameters of documentary filmmaking, as well as to bring communities together in a non-didactic discussion of the issues. www.nilrep.net