Brad Anderson

When he was ten years old, Brad Anderson received a Super 8 camera and a career was born. Born and raised in Connecticut, this independent filmmaker began his formal training at Bowdoin College followed by a year at London's International Film School. Anderson left the latter after completing the first of a two-year program, deciding his tuition would be better served funding a film. He settled in the Boston area and picked up professional experience on documentaries for PBS (e.g., 1991's "Making of the Sixties") and crafting short films. With several other local moviemakers, Anderson helped create the Boston Film Collective, for which he produced and edited the short "Crosley Fever" and paid homage to Ed Wood "Frankenstein's Planet of Monsters." By 1994, he felt ready to tackle a feature. Working on a tiny budget (reportedly $50,000), Anderson co-produced, wrote, edited and directed "The Darien Gap," casting his friend, musician Lyn Vaus, in the lead and intercutting some of his own home movies into the film. The film, a meditation on a slacker's inability to cope with his parents' divorce and its impact on his relationship with his girlfriend, received attention at 1996's Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by the small firm of Northern Arts. Although the film received numerous festival screenings, its theatrical release was spotty.