Colleen Thurston is a Choctaw filmmaker, educator and film curator from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Grounding her filmmaking practice in place-based narratives and Indigenous world views, her work has screened at international film festivals and broadcast nationwide. She has created film and video work for the Smithsonian Channel, Vox, and museums, public television, and federal and tribal organizations and been supported by Firelight Media, the Sundance Institute, Patagonia, the Ford Foundation, the Redford Center, Creative Capital and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.

In addition to her work with Native Lens, Colleen is a programmer for Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, MountainFilm and Indian Territory Film Festival. She has curated film programs for institutions such as the Momentary (Bentonville, AR), the Smithsonian’s Native Cinema Showcase (Santa Fe, NM), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), UCLA Film and Television Archives and Vidiots (Los Angeles, CA) and numerous film festivals. Deeply committed to the next generation of filmmakers, Colleen has held positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma, teaching documentary production and film studies. She resides in Tulsa in the Cherokee Nation where she spends her free time watching movies, gardening, tap dancing, and learning the Choctaw language.