He is particularly known for his coverage of the 2001–2021 War in Afghanistan, including the films This Is What Winning Looks Like, The Battle for Marjah, and Mission Accomplished?
[3] His father worked in various working-class jobs,[4] including as a painter and policeman, and encouraged Anderson to learn a trade.
[2][5] He read an article about the British government supporting the Indonesian invasion of East Timor and was outraged,[5] but dismayed to find others around him were unaware of the event.
[4] Around age 21, Anderson wrote and submitted articles about the invasion of East Timor, but received rejections and did not travel there.
[4] He had wanted to be a writer,[4] but became interested in documentary or TV news after watching World in Action by John Pilger.
[4] In the film, he exposed employees treating dead bodies with disrespect, including "throwing around" the corpses of babies and using occupied coffins "as rubbish bins".
[17][18] He also made films about gang wars in El Salvador,[19] the landless movement in Brazil,[20] pollution in Varanasi,[citation needed] gorilla poaching in Congo, homosexuals in America, Maoist insurgents in Bihar, water rights for Palestinians in the West Bank, the third generation of Agent Orange victims in Vietnam,[21] deportees and pimps in Cambodia,[22] and the war in Southern Iraq.
[24] In 2007, he made Taking on the Taliban, a film based on two months he spent in Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province, with the British Grenadier Guards.
[4] In the late 2000s, Vice began producing more video content, and one of its cofounders, Shane Smith, invited Anderson to contribute his work.
[4] In 2010, he filmed World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye's visit to Senegal for Vice.
[5] His first film as a Vice employee was This Is What Winning Looks Like, which covered the troubled efforts to prepare Afghanistan for the withdrawal of foreign troops and administration.
[36] In 2013, he received the award for Prix Bayeux for Grand Format television for his BBC documentary Mission Accomplished?
[38] In 2016, his piece Fighting Isis won the 2016 Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program.
[31][39] He was nominated each year between 2015 and 2018 for the Outstanding Informational Series or Special award in the Emmys for his work at Vice.