Christene Browne

Christene Browne (born 1965 in Saint Kitts) is the first black woman to write, produce and direct a feature film in Canada.
Born in St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Browne moved with her family to Canada in 1970. She spent her formative years in Regent Park, Canada’s oldest and largest low-income community. It was in this Toronto community where the seeds of Browne’s filmmaker career were planted. She participated and then led the Regent Park Video workshop project and contributed to the production of many documentary videos about the community. It was during this time Browne decided to go to film school. She attended the film program at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute. After leaving Ryerson, she worked for a small film company before starting her own production company, Syncopated Productions in 1990.
Her first two films, Brothers in Music and No Choices, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1991 and launched Browne’s film career. From that...