Sharon Couzin is a retired American experimental filmmaker who began making films in the early 1970s. Her work is known for its complex visual layering that reflected a personal, autobiographical point of view.
While her actual film output was not that prolific and thusly has not received the sort of analysis and study her work deserves, Couzin was also a highly significant figure in building and promoting the experimental film community in the American midwest, specifically in Chicago, Illinois. In 1983, while teaching filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Couzin helped found the Experimental Film Coalition, an organization that held regular monthly screenings, created the Onion City Film Festival and published several periodicals. Couzin served as the Coalition's President until 1988.
Couzin studied filmmaking at SAIC, earning a BFA there in 1976 and an MFA in 1977. After continuing on to teach at SAIC, she served as Chair of the Film Department for a decade.