Erica Anderson (1914–1976) was an American film director, writer, and cinematographer.[1] She was among the first women working as a professional cameraperson in documentary and industrial films. Two documentary films on which she served a cinematographer received Academy Award nominations for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) in 1951, Grandma Moses,[2] and Best Documentary Feature in 1958, which it won, Albert Schweitzer.[3]
Anderson was born in Vienna, Austria, and lived in London before coming to New York to study with the New York school of Photography.[4]
Anderson was initially a still photographer, which she practiced in Vienna and New York. According to one scholar, she may have been the first professional camerawoman in the US.[5] Between 1940-47, Anderson worked in a variety of roles such as researcher, writer, editor, camera operator, and director for United Specialists, Inc., Hartley Films, Creative Images, and others. Some of the films she made during this time included commissions for the Girl Scouts of America, General Dwight Eisenhower's visit to New York, the Duke of Windsor's stay in Washington, DC, and a travelogue of Pennsylvania for the Standard Oil Company.[6]
From 1947-50, she was a director employed at Falcon Films (along with Jerome Hill).[7] Two of the films made during this time, Henry Moore and French Tapestries Visit America might have been among the first 16mm color films shot in the US.
Collaborating with artist/filmmaker Jerome Hill, she provided the cinematography for two Oscar-nominated biographical documentary films. The first, a short about the octogenarian painter Grandma Moses, began, according to Hill, when he saw uncut material she had shot of Moses. As Hill describes it, "Erica had a fine eye for detail, a flair for the whimsical, and a highly developed sense of the drama."[8] To shoot Albert Schweitzer, Anderson spent the winters of 1952-4 in Lambaréné at the hospital with the famous doctor and humanitarian. the film took five years to complete and won the 1958 Acacdemy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
No Man is a Stranger, a 29-minute color film documenting the history and treatment of mental disorders in Haiti that Anderson shot and directed, was made available to professional groups by Schering Corporation and in cooperation with the Department of Mental Hygiene of the State of New York and the Republic of Haiti.[9][10]