Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Christopher Givens was raised by a pair of choir teachers on Baptist hymns, a passion for reading, and weekly visits to Blockbuster Video. At West Monroe High School, he developed an interest in photography then his childhood desire to make films was nurtured by video experiments in a senior broadcasting course. After graduating from the University of New Orleans in Film Studies, he worked in various art departments during the Hollywood South boom then worked in construction, at cafes, pedicabbing, and other odd jobs which afforded long stretches of traveling and reading.

With fellow UNO alum Josh Stover in Winter 2014, he started an underground cinema inside a gutted shotgun house in the LGD. Gradually a creative community formed and organically ventured into experimentations with live art and unconventional forms of art exhibition. Over the course of four years, they facilitated the production of 21 original plays and screened more than 200 films at what was known as St Mary Majaks'.

While earning his MFA in Theatre Design at Tulane University he was a fellow of the Mellon Program for Community Engagement. In developing a community-based project through the Mellon Program, he collaborated with the newly formed Beaubourg Theatre in the CBD. There, he co-founded with David Williams the Beaubourg School, a tuition-free educational platform which paid teachers and invited the public to participate in a range of knowledge sharing and personal practices. At Beaubourg, he performed various roles as technical director, set designer, and artistic director as well as launching a secondhand bookshop there known as Cricket Books.

When the covid pandemic halted social activities, he returned to writing and began a process on theABC Project, a triptych of 3 feature films. Production of Film B: by the time I see you in the morning began on Tarkovsky's 90th birthday: April 4, 2022.

In Spring of 2022, along with Zachary Pine he inititatedCinema Sanctuary, a free film series exploring varieties of spiritual experience, existential crisis, and encounters with the sacred. It isco-organized by a team of volunteers and generously hosted by the First Unitarian Universalist Church and Community Center at 2903 Jefferson Ave.

Most recently he directed an innovative dramatic interpretation of Beethoven's Egmont Op. 84 for the Louisiana Philhamornic Orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans. Christopher developed the script from Goethe's original play with co-producer and actress Grace Kennedy who performed all of the characters. They were joined by artist Anderson Funk who live-edited short films made by Christopher which were projected above the orchestra, creating a layered cinematic/dramatic/symphonic event.

He is in post-production for his first 2 feature films: A & B.