Career
Between 1987 and 1994, Stenders began by directing music videos for many famous Australian bands and musicians, including Angry Anderson, Mental As Anything, Ian Moss, The Go-Betweens, Choirboys, Noiseworks. John Farnham, Single Gun Theory, Ratcat, and 1927.
During this time, he also made short-form films and TV commercials, via his company Prod Films. In 1994, he made the documentary short-feature Motherland, exploring the Latvian and Australian heritage of his two grandmothers.
In 2002, he shot his first feature film, the micro-budget, self-finance film Blacktown. The film stars Stenders friend Tony Ryan as an aboriginal bus driver who falls in love with a woman in a relationship with a married man. The film was screened at the Sydney Film Festival in 2005 and won the audience award in the sidebar section.
In February 2007, Boxing Day premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival.
His film Red Dog was released in 2011. As of 17 November 2011, it had made more than A$21 million at the Australian box office since opening in August 2011. Eleven days after opening, Red Dog became the highest-grossing Australian film of 2011. It has won numerous awards.
He wrote and directed a feature documentary film about The Go-Betweens, called The Go-Betweens: Right Here, the title based on their 1987 song "Right Here". The film had a cinema release in 2017, as well as being showcased at Splendour In The Grass.
His film The Correspondent, based on journalist Peter Greste's memoir The First Casualty and starring Richard Roxburgh, had its world premiere on the opening gala night of the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival.
