Christine Swanson

Filmmaker | Screenwriter

A visionary storyteller from Detroit, multiple award-winning filmmaker Christine Swanson earned her MFA in Film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, one of the nation’s top-ranked graduate film programs.

Recognized early as a talented filmmaker, Christine was selected by NYU faculty as the Willard T.C. Johnson Fellow, the most prestigious fellowship given to the student who has achieved high standards in his or her work. CNN identified Christine as one of the most promising filmmakers to emerge from NYU’s graduate film program since Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Oliver Stone and Spike Lee (Christine’s NYU directing teacher).

Christine earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame, double majoring in Film Theory and Japanese. She was chosen by the Notre Dame Alumni Association as The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey Award recipient, acknowledging her achievements in the arts.

Christine has written and/or directed entertainment projects for Lionsgate, Starz, Universal Television, Warner Bros., CBS Studios, TV One, A&E Networks, BET Films and her production company, Faith Filmworks.

Christine’s movie directing credits include the network and cable television records breaking The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, starring Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis. The film won Best Television Movie from the African American Film Critics Association as well as the Satellite TV Award for Best Television Movie. The film was nominated for 5 NAACP Image Awards including Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture for Christine, and a Critics’ Choice Awards Nomination for Best Television Movie.

Christine also directed Aunjanue Ellis in the powerful short film, Fannie, about the ground-breaking testimony of human, voting and civil rights icon, Fannie Lou Hamer, in front of the Democratic National Convention’s Credentials Committee in 1964. Fannie earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Short Form Film.

Christine also directed Albany Road, All About You, All About Us, To Hell and Back, Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story (which broke network ratings as the most watched original movie in the network’s history) and For the Love of Ruth, for which Christine earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture. In addition to writing the above movies, Christine was a screenwriter for Woman Thou Art Loosed.

Among its numerous accolades, Albany Road was named one of the “Top 10 Movies of the Year” by the African American Film Critics Association. Albany Road was also nominated for 2 NAACP Image Awards: Outstanding Independent Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Lynn Whitfield.

Some of Christine’s television directing credits include episodes of Chicago P.D., P-Valley, FBI, BMF, Sweet Magnolias, Found, All American, All American: Homecoming, MacGyver, Roswell, New Mexico and Bel Air. Her memorable episode of Chicago P.D., entitled “Black and Blue,” was rated “Best Episode” of Season 6 by Fansided.

Christine serves on the board of trustees for Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana; is an advisor to the Film and Television department at the University of Notre Dame and has served as a professor in the University of Georgia’s MFA Screenwriting Program. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband, studio executive and producer Michael Swanson, and they are the parents of four children.