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| Summer 2000 issue | . | Works of Faith: The Swansons | |
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 If Michael Swanson and Christine Ashford Swanson have their way, Love the
Way, their first feature-length film, will be opening soon at a theater near you
— most likely some time this winter. The husband-and-wife team completed shooting the
romantic drama/comedy in April; the film premiered at the Acapulco Black Film Festival in
June. Christine wrote the script and directed the film, while Michael served as producer,
handling the business and marketing end.Although their independent production company, Faith Filmworks, Inc., is just two years old, it has begun to attract attention in cinema circles. The couple recently was featured on CNN’s Business Unusual as "two to watch" in the film industry. Meanwhile their romantic short film, Two Seasons, won first place in the 1998 Acapulco Black Film Festival and was selected from 1,500 entries for the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. In June, the film was screened throughout Japan as part of the American Short Shorts Film Fest. Last year the couple, who both majored in communications at Notre Dame (Christine also majored in Japanese), produced and directed a public service announcement promoting a March of Dimes program to encourage reading among young people. The 30-second PSA features former Notre Dame basketball star and assistant coach Coquese Washington, who now plays for the WNBA Houston Comets. "We want to tell memorable stories, movies that movie lovers enjoy, stories that cross color lines and are universal, also stories that are profitable — this is a business after all," says Michael Swanson. Michael says he got the idea for the company’s name when he saw a chart in his Bible depicting how faith’s actions work. "If you take the word "film" out of our name you see "faith works," and that continues to encourage us. We’re always reminded that our faith works." Currently, the Swansons are negotiating with HBO over a film project and are planning their next feature film. |
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