[1] After graduating from high school in 1967 she spent a year in Europe, including six months in Paris.
[1][2] There she studied under Herbert J. Gans, and during her time in New York she developed a greater interest in cinema and ultimately decided to become a filmmaker.
[2][3] Anderson returned to Australia after the graduating from Columbia and started to work for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Together with her husband she produced five extensively researched documentaries set in Papua New Guinea and Australia, which were positively received and garnered several awards.
[2] Rats in the Ranks (1996), was "an often hilarious close-up look at small-town political infighting", according to American film critic Janet Maslin.