Robin Anderson (1950 – 2002) was an Australian award-winning documentary filmmaker.

Career

Anderson was in born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in 1950. After graduating from high school in 1967 she spent a year in Europe including 6 months in Paris. Back in Australia she studied economics at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

and graduated three years later with honors and a federal government scholarship to study for master's degree in sociology at the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. There she studied under

Herbert J. Gans Herbert J. Gans (born May 7, 1927) is a German-born American sociologist who taught at Columbia University from 1971 to 2007. One of the most prolific and influential sociologists of his generation, Gans came to America in 1940 as a refugee fro ...

and during her time in New York she developed a greater interest in cinema and ultimately decided to become a filmmaker.Robin Hughes
''Robin Anderson – A Tribute''
Sense of Cinema, May 2002Richard Philipps

at wsws.org on 18 March 2002 Anderson returned to Australia after the graduating from Columbia and started to work for the Australia broadcaster ABC. Through her work at ABC she met the documentary filmmaker

Bob Connolly Bob Connolly is an Australian film director, cinematographer and author. He is best known for his documentaries produced over the past 30 years, including '' The Highlands Trilogy'' and ''Rats in the Ranks''. More recent films include '' Facing ...

, who soon became her husband and the father of her two future daughters. Together with her husband she produced five extensively researched documentaries set in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and Australia, which were positively received and garnered several awards. Ian Aitken: ''Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film''. Routledge, 2013, , pp
60-61
/ref> Their first documentary ''

First Contact First contact may refer to: *First contact (astronomy), the moment in astronomical transit when the apparent positions of the two bodies first touch *First contact (anthropology), the first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another ...

'' about the Australian Leahy brothers and their relation to natives of the remote highlands of

was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

in the category Best Documentary Feature in 1984. Anderson died of a rare form of cancer on 8 March 2002, aged 51 in Sydney. The following day her work appeared at the

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

Filmography

*1982:

*1989: Joe Leahy's Neighbours *1992: Black Harvest *1996:

Rats in the Ranks ''Rats in the Ranks'' is an Australian documentary film released in 1996. The film detailed the last weeks of the 1994 Leichhardt Municipality, Leichhardt Council mayoral elections. The filmmakers, Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson (later known ...

*2001: Facing the Music

Notes

References

*John Phillips
''Robin Anderson, 51, Creator Of Documentaries on Australia''
The New York Times, 23 March 2002 *Robin Hughes
''Robin Anderson – A Tribute''
Sense of Cinema, May 2002 *Ian Aitken: ''Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film''. Routledge, 2013, , pp
60-61
*Richard Philipps

at wsws.org on 18 March 2002 * Brian McFarlane (ed.), Geoff Mayer (ed.), Ina Bertrand (ed.): ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Film''. Oxford University Press, 1999, , p. 13

External links

* *http://www.der.org/films/filmmakers/robin-anderson.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Robin Australian film directors Australian women film directors 1950 births 2002 deaths