Born Robin Snyder in Perth, Australia. Australian documentary filmmaker who earned a degree in economics in Australia before receiving a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University, New York City. Following their success of FIRST CONTACT (1983), which concentrated on the history, anthropology and psychology of the first European contact in the Papua-New Guinea Highlands, Anderson and husband/producer Bob Connolly spent most of 1983 and 1984 as visiting fellows at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific Studies writing the book of their first film, First Contact. When the Australian Film Commission gave them a fellowship for their second film, they chose to return to the PNG Highlands, where they made the second part of their so-called "Highlands Trilogy," JOE LEAHY'S NEIGHBOURS, which won seven awards. The final part of the trilogy, BLACK HARVEST, also set in the highlands, was completed in 1992. It took viewers right into the heart of an epic struggle between traditional New Guinea tribal culture and Western capitalism. In the same year, Anderson and Connolly won the AFI's prestigious Byron Kennedy Award for their outstanding contribution to Australian film-making. With RATS IN THE RANKS, released in 1996, Connolly and Anderson finally surrendered their fascination with New Guinea to delve into the equally complex politics of a Sydney council -- Leichhardt in the inner west. Robin explained to Peter Thompson in 1996 that, although they were focusing on a different place, their method was the same: "Well, the only difference in this film is a different place -- otherwise everything is exactly the same. I mean, we used the same method of filming, we approached it in the same way with a group of people that we really tried to get to know well ... we always try and look at situations through people. I mean, that's what's of interest to me, not so much issues but how people behave in extraordinary situations." Their last film together, FACING THE MUSIC (2001), was their best, according to critics, and shot in the usual way. They filmed 160 hours of material over more than a year. The next 18 months were spent editing all that into a 90-minute film. Anderson admitted she was emotionally involved with the material -- Professor Anne Boyd trying to reconcile her creative aspirations, as one of Australia's leading composers, with the increasingly heavy burden of her academic work. She was married to Connolly until her death in 2002; they had two daughters. She died of cancer in Australia at the age of 53.  Nominated for Documentary (Features) 1983: FIRST CONTACT - Producer (w. Bob Connolly) 1 nomination