(11.03.1932 – 03.11.2023)

Valeria Anderson was a documentarist and chronicle film director. Graduated All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow and worked under Tallinnfilm studio. Her portfolio consists of 29 documentaries and 98 newsreels (1959-1984). Anderson has brought new techniques to the art of cinematography, for example she filmed with a hidden camera and completely abandoned (for the first time in Estonian documentary) the ideological voice-over text. Her style is best described with films: “I’m afraid of heights” (1976), “Kivine hällilaul” (1964), “Tagasitulek” (1966). She is considered to be the creator of the Estonian poetic documentary era and one of the founders of critical journalism in film documentaries. Anderson has received several prizes at the annual festivals of the Baltic republics and Belarus, as well as at the All-Union festivals.