Allison Anders | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Allison Anders at the61st Annual Peabody Awards (2002) | |
| Born | Mary Allison Anders (1954-11-16)November 16, 1954 (age 70) Ashland, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Alma mater | UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television |
| Occupation(s) | Director, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Known for | Gas Food Lodging Mi Vida Loca Grace of My Heart |
| Children | 3 |
Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an Americanindependent film director whose films includeGas Food Lodging,Mi Vida Loca andGrace of My Heart.[1][2] Anders has collaborated with fellowUCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduateKurt Voss and has also worked as a television director. Anders' films have been shown at theCannes International Film Festival and at theSundance Film Festival.[3] She has been awarded aMacArthur Genius Grant as well as aPeabody Award.
Anders was born inAshland,Kentucky, to mother Alberta "Rachel" Anders (née Steed) and father Robert "Bob" Anders.[4][5] She has two sisters, one of whom, Luanna Anders,[6] starred in her first film,Border Radio. Her paternal side has ancestry that traces back to theSouthernHatfield family and, more distantly, toGeorge Washington's spy,Caleb Brewster, while her maternal side includes another Washington spy,Abraham Woodhull.[5]
When Anders was 4 years old, her father abandoned the family. Anders' mother and father were divorced when she was 5. At age 12, she was gang raped by three boys at a party in Cape Canaveral, Florida, an event that influenced several of her films.[7] After her mother moved her and her sisters to Los Angeles, Anders suffered a mental breakdown at the age of 15 and was hospitalized. When she came out of the psychiatric ward, she was placed into foster care but ran away. She hitchhiked across the country, at one point ending up in jail. After turning 17, Anders dropped out of her Los Angeles high school and moved back to Kentucky. She later moved to London with the man who fathered her first child.[8]
In her early 20s, Anders moved back to Los Angeles with her daughter and attended a junior college,Los Angeles Valley College,[9] while working odd jobs. Due to constant relocation as a child, Anders had not had a steady education. She said that growing up, most of her time was spent watching TV and going to movie theaters. Inspired by the films ofWim Wenders and other filmmakers, Anders applied toUCLA Film School.[10] During her time at UCLA, Anders produced her first sound film. Wenders attended the screening.[8] She has called Wenders' 1974 filmAlice in the Cities "one of my very favorite films, and a guiding light, since I first saw it at theNuart (Theatre) in Santa Monica in the 1970s."[11] In 1986, Anders got her B.A. in Motion Picture-Television fromUCLA.[3]
In 1986, Anders won aSamuel Goldwyn Writing Award for a script calledLost Highway that she wrote about her father.[12] She said that after writing the script she shared it with her father, and was able to have a relationship with him again.[9]
Anders' first film, thepunk music-heavyBorder Radio, was co-written and co-directed withKurt Voss and Dean Lent and was made while they were at UCLA. It was nominated for Best Feature of 1988 by theIndependent Feature Project for Best First Feature.[13] The film told the story of three musicians who stole money owed to them from a job and then fled to Mexico. The story is set amid the Los Angeles punk-rock scene of the 1980s.[13] With a $2,000 contribution from actorVic Tayback and loans from Voss's parents to fund the film, the filmmakers made up for the small budget by using local locations and casting performers they knew. For the starring role, they cast Anders' sister, Luanna Anders, and musicianChris D., as the leading man, as well as Anders' daughter, Devon Anders, who played Luanna's daughter in the film. Violating UCLA policy, the filmmakers cut the film at night in the school's editing bays, while Anders' two young daughters slept on the floor.[13] In 2007,Border Radio was given a special release on DVD as part of theCriterion Collection[13] and was lauded as groundbreaking independent cinema.[14]
Anders' second feature, the 1992 filmGas Food Lodging, earned her aNew York Film Critics Circle Award andNational Society of Film Critics honors for Best New Director; and nominations from theIndependent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Director. ActressFairuza Balk won a Spirit Award for her role in the film. The film also won the Deauville Film Festival Critics Award and was also nominated for theGolden Bear at the42nd Berlin International Film Festival.[15]Gas Food Lodging is a coming-of-age story about a truck stop waitress and her two daughters, three vibrant, restless women in an isolated Western town.[16] The screenplay was loosely adapted by Anders from the novelDon't Look and It Won't Hurt byRichard Peck.[9]
Her next film,Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life), was about girl gangs in the poor HispanicEcho Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Anders lived. It premiered at theCannes Film Festival in 1993, and saw wide release in 1994. The story features a female perspective on growing up in the inner city.
Anders' 1996 film,Grace of My Heart, was a musical drama executive produced byMartin Scorsese, about a songwriter (played byIlleana Douglas) and her career over several years, including work in the early 1960s in music publishing and production offices, a setting based on theBrill Building. This marriage to a songwriting partner and her emergence as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s are among elements paralleling the career ofCarole King, but the film is neither a biography nor entirely fiction. The original soundtrack features new songs written in various styles of the era.[10][17]Elvis Costello andBurt Bacharach had their first collaboration composing a song for the film, "God Give Me Strength," and were nominated for aGrammy Award.
In the late 1980s, Anders had become friends with members of pop groupDuran Duran, and frequently inserted small references to the band in her films (character names, posters on walls, and so on). In 1999, after bassistJohn Taylor had left Duran Duran and was beginning to launch an acting career, she and Voss co-wrote and co-directedSugar Town, about the Los Angeles film and music industry. The film starred several musical friends of Anders', including Taylor,X singerJohn Doe,Spandau Ballet bassistMartin Kemp, and singer/actorMichael Des Barres.Sugar Town followed the interconnected lives of a handful of power brokers, wanna-bes and has-beens. Gwen (played by Jade Gordon), a self-centered would-be rock star, is working as an assistant to production designer Liz (Ally Sheedy); when Gwen discovers Liz has a date with a music producer (Larry Klein), any loyalty she has to her boss disappears.[18] The film received twoIndependent Spirit Award nominations, for Best Film and Best Newcomer (Jade Gordon). The film also won Anders and Voss theFantasporto award for Best Screenplay.[citation needed]
Her 2001 autobiographical film,Things Behind the Sun,[19] deals with the long-term aftermath of rape.[20] It was released on theShowtime cable TV network. The film earned anEmmy nomination for actorDon Cheadle as Best Supporting Actor; and threeIndependent Spirit Award nominations: Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor,Kim Dickens for Best Actress, and Best Film. Anders and co-writer Kurt Voss also received a nomination for anEdgar Award. The film was awarded theSHINE Award as well as thePeabody Award.Things Behind the Sun was inspired by an experience Anders had in 1967 when she was raped by a group of boys.[21] Anders actually shot some of the film in the same location inCocoa Beach,Florida, where the gang rape occurred.[20]
Anders' 2012 film,Strutter, co-directed with Voss, completed a loose trilogy of films about Southern California musicians that began withBorder Radio andSugar Town. A black-and-white road picture, the film featured Luanna Anders fromBorder Radio, a scene in the motel room whereGram Parsons died, and a score with music byAriel Pink andJ Mascis.[22] The film was funded by aKickstarter campaign.[23]
In 2013, Anders released theLifetime-produced TV movieRing of Fire, aJune Carter Cash biopic that featured the musicianJewel. The film was inspired byJohn Carter Cash's book,Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash.[24]
Anders began directing shows for broadcast and cable television in 1999, including several episodes in the second and third seasons ofSex and the City, as well as episodes ofGrosse Pointe,Cold Case,The L Word,Men In Trees,The Mentalist, andWhat About Brian?
In 2011, she directed an episode of theJohn Wells production,Southland, which involved a car chase scene.[25] Anders directed an episode ofTurn: Washington's Spies, which was especially interesting to her because she has distant relatives on both sides of her family who were spies forGeorge Washington.[5]
In 2013, Anders interviewed 94-year-old actress and Hollywood legendMarge Champion, who appeared at a 2013Hollywood film festival screening of 1968 cult filmThe Swimmer, which starredBurt Lancaster. The interview was featured amongbehind-the-scenes supplementary material on a 2014 Blu-ray/DVD release of the film byGrindhouse Releasing/Box Office Spectaculars Blu-ray/DVD restoration of the film.[26]
Anders and her musician daughter, Tiffany Anders, started the Don't Knock the Rock Film and Music Festival in 2003 in Los Angeles.[27]
In 2006, she appeared in the road-trip documentaryWanderlust. Anders has also contributed to theweb seriesTrailers from Hell.
In 2013, Anders bid on and won a rock and roll record collection formerly owned by the actressGreta Garbo. She created a website called "Greta's Records" to curate and share the collection of 50 records.[28]
Anders counts filmmakerWim Wenders as a mentor. She started as a fan, sending him letters and music, and Wenders eventually responded. Anders said that she created a faux grant that she "won" so that she and at least one other friend could study under Wenders on location for his filmParis, Texas. They have been friends for over 30 years.[31]
In 2003, Anders became a Distinguished Professor at theUniversity of California Santa Barbara, where she teaches in the Film And Media Studies Department one quarter each year. She has taught courses on topics including autobiographic writing, rock and roll films, and music supervision.[3]
Anders has three children. Her two daughters are Tiffany Anders, a musician and music supervisor, and Devon Anders. Her son, Ruben Goodbear Anders, was fostered (and eventually adopted) by the Anders family for three years after the death of his mother, Nica Rogers,[35] who appeared inMi Vida Loca.[20][36][37] Tiffany was named after the filmBreakfast at Tiffany's.[9]
| Year | Film | Credited as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Producer | |||
| 1984 | Paris, Texas | Production Assistant | |||
| 1987 | Border Radio | Yes | Yes | Nominated –Independent Spirit Awards forBest First Feature 1988 | |
| 1992 | Gas Food Lodging | Yes | Yes | Screenplay Won –New York Film Critics Circle for Best New Director 1992 Won –National Society of Film Critics for Best New Director 1992 Nominated –Independent Spirit Awards forBest Screenplay 1992 Nominated –Independent Spirit Awards forBest Director 1992 | |
| 1993 | Mi Vida Loca | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1995 | Four Rooms – Segment: "The Missing Ingredient" | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1996 | Grace of My Heart | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1997 | Lover Girl | Yes | Executive Producer | ||
| 1999 | Sugar Town | Yes | Yes | Written by; Co-directed withKurt Voss | |
| 2001 | Things Behind the Sun | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2002 | In the Echo (TV movie) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Written by; Producer; Costume designer |
| 2007 | The Pacific and Eddy | Yes | Executive Producer | ||
| 2009 | Until the Very Last Moment | Yes | Short; Executive Producer | ||
| 2011 | A Crush on You (TV movie) | Yes | |||
| The Lie | Acted, playing Allison | ||||
| 2012 | Strutter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Written by; Producer |
| 2013 | Ring of Fire (TV movie) | Yes | Nominated –Primetime Emmy Award forOutstanding Directing of a Drama 2013 | ||
| Fireflies | Yes | Executive Producer | |||
| Rock N Roll Mamas (documentary) | Yes | Executive Producer | |||
| 2014 | I Believe in Unicorns | Yes | Executive Producer | ||
