Christine Swanson
Writer and Director
A visionary storyteller from Detroit, multiple award-winning director 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.
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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).
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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 developed, written and/or directed entertainment projects for HBO Films, Lionsgate, Universal Television, Warner Bros. Television, CBS Television Studios, TV One, A&E Networks, BET Films, Starz and Faith Filmworks.
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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 TV Movie” from the African American Film Critics Association and the Satellite TV Award for “Best Television Movie.”
The film was nominated for five NAACP Image Awards including “Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture” for Christine and a Critics’ Choice Awards Nomination for “Best Television Movie.”
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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.”
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Christine has also directed 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.
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Some of Christine’s television directing credits include episodes of Chicago P.D., P-Valley, FBI, Found, Sweet Magnolias, 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, producer Michael Swanson, and their four children.
Michael Swanson
Producer
Emmy Award winner Michael Swanson is a film, television and theater producer. He is also a visionary entrepreneur and president and CEO of the Los Angeles based entertainment company, Faith Filmworks.
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Throughout his distinguished career in entertainment, Michael has produced movies to critical and audience acclaim including Albany Road, All About You, All About Us, For the Love of Ruth, To Hell and Back, Andraé Crouch: Making The Journey, Two Seasons, Notre Dame First Time Fans: Legacy, The Wayman Tisdale Story and Fannie.
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On Broadway, Michael is involved with the Tony Award winning hit musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, the upcoming Hippest Trip - The Soul Train Musical and the first Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking choreopoem, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. This celebrated work garnered 7 Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play. Michael is currently developing and producing the Broadway and West End bound musical, I’ll Be There, about Motown’s Four Tops.
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After attending Princeton Theological Seminary, Michael joined NBC's "Must See TV" national primetime sales team in New York City that sold commercial space for top-rated NBC shows including Seinfeld, ER, Friends, Frasier and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This sales team became the first in broadcast television to book over $2.2 billion in upfront advertising revenue.
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Earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in Film, Television and Theatre from the University of Notre Dame; Michael was chosen by the Notre Dame Alumni Association as The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey Award recipient, acknowledging his achievements in the arts.
Michael serves on the board of directors for Wedgwood Circle, FEAST, Success Through Education Program and is a member of Notre Dame’s Performing Arts Advisory Council, the Coalition for Faith and Media and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A South Side of Chicago native, Michael resides in Los Angeles with his wife, filmmaker Christine Swanson, and their four children.