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Robin Anderson (1950 – 2002) was an Australian award-winning documentary filmmaker. She is known for her 1996 film Rats in the Ranks.

Early life and education

Robin Anderson was in born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1950.

After graduating from high school in 1967 she spent a year in Europe, including six months in Paris. Back in Australia she studied economics at the University of Western Australia and graduated three years later with honours.

She then worked in Canberra for the Australian Government for several years, until she won a government scholarship to study for master's degree in sociology at Columbia University in New York City. There she studied under Herbert J. Gans, and during her time in New York she developed a greater interest in cinema and ultimately decided to become a filmmaker.

Career

Anderson returned to Australia after the graduating from Columbia and started to work for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Through her work at ABC she met the documentary filmmaker Bob Connolly, whom she married. Together with her husband she produced five extensively researched documentaries set in Papua New Guinea and Australia, which were positively received and garnered several awards.

Their first documentary First Contact, about the Australian Leahy brothers and their relation to natives of the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Documentary Feature in 1984.

Rats in the Ranks (1996), was "an often hilarious close-up look at small-town political infighting", according to American film critic Janet Maslin.

Accolades

In 1992 Anderson and Connolly won the Byron Kennedy Award, a lifetime achievement award presented as part of the Australian Film Institute Awards (later AACTAs). The judges stated that their "films are not only fine documentaries - they are great human dramas. They will allow no obstacle to divert their single-minded pursuit of excellence".

Personal life

Anderson married director Bob Connolly and they had two daughters.

Death

Anderson died aged 51 of a rare form of cancer on 8 March 2002, in Sydney. The following day her work appeared at the Sydney Film Festival.

Filmography

• 1982: First Contact
• 1989: Joe Leahy's Neighbours
• 1992: Black Harvest
• 1996: Rats in the Ranks
• 2001: Facing the Music

References

1. ^ "Robin Anderson". Documentary Educational Resources. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
2. ^ Robin Hughes: Robin Anderson – A Tribute. Senses of Cinema, May 2002
3. ^ Richard Philipps: Leading Australian documentary filmmaker dies at wsws.org on 18 March 2002
4. Ian Aitken: Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. Routledge, 2013, ISBN 9781135206208, pp.60-61
5. ^ "Robin Anderson, 51, Creator Of Documentaries on Australia". The New York Times. 23 March 2002. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
6. "Byron Kennedy Awards (List of winners from 1984 to 2016)" (PDF). Retrieved 19 December 2024.

Further reading

• Brian McFarlane (ed.), Geoff Mayer (ed.), Ina Bertrand (ed.): The Oxford Companion to Australian Film. Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 9780195537970, p. 13

External links

• Robin Anderson at IMDb

• Australian film directors
• Australian women film directors
• 1950 births
• 2002 deaths