Praised director offers advice

Acclaimed director Allison Anders will be the focus of two campus events this week–a visit to a PSU film class and an open event where she will discuss directing for both television and film.

Anders, who burst onto the independent film scene in 1992 with Gas Food Lodging, will speak in the Lincoln Hall Studio Theater Friday at 2 p.m. for a free event entitled “Directing Film/Directing TV: A Talk with Allison Anders.”

Today, she will visit the class, “Anatomy of a Movie II: The Independent Film,” to speak with students who have been analyzing Gas Food Lodging the entire term.

Sarah Andrews-Collier, theater arts chair, said that Anders is set to speak at Friday’s event about her career as a writer and director–particularly the differences and similarities between working in film and television. Anders, who was chosen this year as the theater arts director-in-residence, will also take questions from attendees at the lecture.

Andrews-Collier encourages anyone interested in filmmaking to attend the event.

“It is always different when you can experience somebody in the flesh,” she said. “Seeing the personality of a film director in person can teach interested students about film work.”

The director of six feature films, which include Mi vida loca and Grace of My Heart, Anders has also directed episodes of television series such as Sex and the City, The L Word and Cold Case.

For her visit to the Anatomy of a Movie class, professor Sue Brower and her students will interact with Anders and question her about Gas Food Lodging, for which Anders won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director in 1992.

“Part of the goal of that course [Anatomy of a Movie], is to bring that filmmaker to campus, and there is particular interest with Allison because she went on to do some popular television,” said Andrews-Collier.

Since the students have been analyzing the film for about eight weeks, they are planning on asking hard questions, such as “If you knew then what you know now, how would you change the film?” Brower said in a February press release.

“She’ll be facing a tough bunch,” she wrote.

In bringing Anders to campus, Andrews-Collier credited the hard work and foresight of Brower, who coordinated Anders’ visit months ago.

“I read an interview of Allison, and she sounded like our students,” Brower said in the release. “The interview had a down-to-earth tone: she had knocked around a bit and was a parent when she decided to put one foot in front of another and make a movie.”