Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an American film and television director. Anders has directed many independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school graduate Kurt Voss. As a child, Anders experienced many troubles that has greatly influenced her films now. When she was 4 years old, her father abandoned her, her mother, and four sisters. At the age of 12, she was raped by her step-father after already having endured his physical abuse. At one point her step-father threatened her with a gun. After her mother moved her and her sisters to Los Angeles to escape further abuse, Anders suffered a mental breakdown at the age of 15. When she came out of the psyhchological ward, she was placed into foster care but instead she ran from home and began hitch hiking across the country, an adventure mostly ending with jail. After turning 17, Anders dropped out of high school in Los Angeles and moved back to Kentucky and later on moved to London with the man who fathered her first child. In her early 20's she moved back to Los Angeles with her daughter and attended junior college while doing several odd jobs.