Christine Swanson

Christine Swanson was an American filmmaker who directed three TV movies for TV One, a television network whose mission was to provide targeted content to an African-American audience. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Swanson was a standout student in high school, and easily gained accepted into the academically challenging University of Notre Dame. Although Swanson's primary interest was in filmmaking, she double majored in Japanese and Communications while attending the school, and went on to earn her Bachelors degree in both. After completing her undergraduate work, Swanson was accepted into New York University's prestigious graduate filmmaking program. During her tenure at NYU, Swanson studied directing under legendary filmmaker Spike Lee, and went on to win the impressive Willard T.C. Johnson Fellowship by the school's film department faculty. In 2001 Swanson directed her feature film debut, a romantic dramedy called "All About You." The film was critically praised and went on to win Best Film at the American Black Film Festival. Her follow-up film came six years later with the release of "All About Us" (2007). Like her feature film debut, Swanson directed the film, in addition to writing the screenplay. It would be a number of years before Christine Swanson would again have the opportunity to direct a film, but she stayed busy in the meantime by teaching screenwriting for the MFA program at the University of Georgia. After a period of nearly a decade of inactivity behind the camera, Swanson returned in full force in 2015 by directing two cable movies for the TV One network: "To Hell and Back" and "For the Love of Ruth." The following year Swanson directed "Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story" (2016), which also ran on the TV One network. "Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story" was Swanson's third directorial effort in two years.