Petra Epperlein
Directing
Known For

FIGHTVILLE is about the art and sport of fighting: a microcosm of life, a physical manifestation of that other brutal contest called the American Dream...
Fightville

This provocative consideration of the lasting influence and draw of Hitler provides insight into the resurgence of white supremacy, antisemitism, and the weaponization of history.
The Meaning of Hitler

American soldiers of the 2/3 Field Artillery, a group known as the "Gunners," tell of their experiences in Baghdad during the Iraq War. Holed up in a bombed out pleasure palace built by Sadaam Hussein, the soldiers endured hostile situations some four months after President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations in the country.
Gunner Palace

Fidelis Cloer is a self-confessed war profiteer who found The Perfect War when the US invaded Iraq. It wasn't about selling a dozen cars, or even a hundred, it was a thousand-car war where security would become the ultimate product.
Bulletproof Salesman

Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas is an award-winning series of 30 three-minute stories about innovators—people who are reshaping the world through act or invention—directed by the world's most celebrated documentary filmmakers.
Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas

U.S. citizens in more than 25 states are followed as they set out on the morning of the presidential election, throughout the course of the day, until the polls close in the evening and the results are revealed.
11/8/16

Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker take a powerfully personal journey through the former East Germany, as Epperlein investigates her father’s 1999 suicide and the possibility that he may have worked as a spy for the dreaded Stasi security service.
Karl Marx City

In 2003, Iraqi journalist Yunis Abbas was taken from his home by American soldiers and detained at Abu Ghraib prison on suspicion of planning to assassinate Tony Blair. Only thing is, he was innocent. Through his months-long ordeal played out like a comedy of errors, Yunis learned the true meaning of liberation. His unique story is told via co-director Michael Tucker's footage, Yunis's home videos and illustrations by co-director Petra Epperlein.
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair

Nearly 20 years after their deployment to Iraq, veterans grapple with their younger selves and try to make sense of the war.
The Army We Had

Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein reveal the lives of post Iraq from a Congressional candidate in Buffalo to a cage fighter in Louisiana, set against the backdrop of the 2008 election. From Jon Powers's political fight for a congressional seat to Wilf Stuart's family struggling with his brother's combat deployment, this poignant piece offers a picture of both the hope and loss that remain after the fighting ends.