8/31/2023 0 Comments Mikki howard eddie phelpsI saw how people can have different responses to the same project, and that I have to learn how to qualify those responses. The film’s success gave me a sense of confidence and allowed me to trust my instincts, even though some of the faculty members at NYU hated it. I felt my way through that story, and my directing chops hadn’t been solidified yet, but my writing chops were. That story was very important to me because it was the first narrative film I ever made. It traveled so much and I got to see it with various audiences. It really opened my eyes in terms of the possibilities of storytelling and how it resonates with people across all demographics. The original movie won the first-ever HBO Short Film Competition almost 20 years ago, it played at Sundance and it was nominated for a student Academy Award. I put it into the hands of various people including Leslie Odom Jr., and the film is just a green light away from being made. I’ve already wrote the feature version, and it’s ready to go. Your first directorial effort was a lovely short film, “Two Seasons,” which I’ve heard you may be making into a feature. I just have that kind of attitude after having been forced to make anything work and being given the opportunity to fail. That education made me feel secure in how I approach filmmaking today, and I know that I can make anything work. Many of my classmates were great filmmakers, and some of them have won Oscars. It’s never about the budget, it’s always about telling a great story. The films I’ve made have been typically low-budget, and I can make them work because of my training and background. They give you a camera, your classmates are your crew and you have to produce an excellent movie or you’re going to get crushed by your professors and peers. You are trained as a guerrilla filmmaker. Now that I’ve had almost a 20-year career on and off, I’ve realized that it gave me the foundation for how I approach everything, especially when you don’t have all the money in the world. You kind of take it for granted when you’re in film school because you just don’t realize how valuable it is. How did your education at Tisch School of the Arts help form you as an artist? Swanson spoke with Indie Outlook about her collaboration with Miki Howard, her approach to exploring spirituality on film and the advice from Ruby Dee that changed her life. Parris delivers a tour de force performance as Howard, portraying the full arc of her evolution over the decades, as well as her complex relationships with the men in her life, including the abusive Eddie Phelps and the kind yet damaged Gerald Levert. It was a biopic on the iconic singer Miki Howard, and the actress cast in the coveted role was Teyonah Parris, who impressed me greatly in Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq.” The resulting film, “Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story,” premiered June 12th on TV One, and it became the highest-rated original movie in the history of the network. When I met filmmaker Christine Swanson at this year’s Ebertfest, she was eager to discuss her upcoming project with me.
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