Female Filmmakers: Allison Anders

<< Blog | Editorial Features Friday, October 28, 9:00 AMFri, 28 Oct 2022 @ 9:00 AM by Vavavooma Thurman

Today's director for our Female Filmmakers series is a total badass. She is an American indie filmmaking queen who brings her edgy spirit with her to every film she does. It's Allison Anders!

Allison Anders has an interesting backstory in the world of film and she has a rocker chick vibe that has been with her since the beginning. That is what I think is so cool about this particular director. She grew up in Kentucky and had a rough childhood. She was a young punk in Los Angeles in the 1980s and she was already a single mother battling alcoholism before she got any kind of a break.

She admired director Wim Wenders and felt a kinship with his work from afar. In fact, she was certain that he could become her mentor if he just knew that she existed. So what did she do? She did the very curious thing of making him a mixtape. Seriously. Why? She said that she felt he would get it. She sent him the tape and a few letters, but they all went to his agent. She started to think that he wasn't getting the letters himself.

She managed to track down his actual phone number in New York City (it turned out that he was listed in the Yellow Pages) and she actually gave him a call. According to Allison herself, Wim told her that he remembered her mixtape and he liked it. He then told her that she could keep writing to him if she wanted to and that he would take the time to read her letters.

Meanwhile, she was studying film at UCLA when Wim said that he was coming to town and he would watch a screening of her film and the films of her friends if they set it up for him. She did exactly that and he really liked her film Border Radio (1987). She also lied to get a grant by saying that she was going to work on one of his films. He then had no choice but to let her work on his next film: Paris, Texas. That's how she got her big break in Hollywood: by stalking and lying. I'm joking, but only sort of. Allison's creative maneuvering got her on set where she learned fast and became an asset to the cast and crew.

After she got all of that life experience on set, she was more knowledgeable about what to do in order to make her own films. In 1992 she directed Gas Food Lodging and immediately made a name for herself on the indie film circuit.

The plot follows a waitress raising her two teen daughters in a New Mexico trailer park. The mom and the teens are all horny. Seriously. They all want boyfriends. They are all boy-crazy! And you know what that means: we see them throw themselves at men in various stages of undress.

The movie stars absolute stunner Brooke Adams as well as young actresses Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk. What a cast of skincredible women!

She directed Grace of My Heart and Sugar Town which starred a pregnant and naked Lucinda Jenney. She did those 90s films and directed four episodes of Sex and the City which introduced her to the world of TV directing. This would prove to be very beneficial because Ms. Anders has directed episodes of Southland, The L Word, Orange is the New Black, Riverdale, Mayans M.C., The Affair, and more.

She is in pre-production for her next feature film called Paul is Dead which she wrote and is slated to direct. I, for one, cannot wait to see her next feature. If it is anything like her other work, then we are in for a real treat!