WORLD WATER DAY: SAMANTHA CRAIN + DROWNED LAND
FILM SCREENING
+ PERFORMANCE
DROWNED LAND (2025)
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2026
6:00-9:00 PM
PHILBROOK MUSEUM OF ART
2727 S ROCKFORD RD.
TULSA, OK
Join Tulsa Artist Fellowship and Philbrook Museum of Art for a special World Water Day celebration featuring a live performance by Samantha Crain, followed by a screening of Drowned Land (2025).
Drowned Land is the debut feature from Choctaw filmmaker and Tulsa Artist Fellow Colleen Thurston, winner of Best Oklahoma Documentary at deadCenter Film Festival and Best Documentary at Circle Cinema Film Festival. The film follows the fight to protect Southeastern Oklahoma’s Kiamichi River. Weaving together advocacy, science, and the filmmaker’s own family history, Drowned Land is a call to restore balance and safeguard the river’s future.
Choctaw singer-songwriter Samantha Crain, who composed the film’s original score, will open the evening with a live performance centering stories of water, memory, and resilience. A discussion with the filmmakers will follow the screening.
The event celebrates World Water Day, an annual United Nations observance held on March 22 since 1993 that highlights the importance of fresh water. This year’s theme is “Where Water Flows, Equality Grows.”
Schedule
6:00 PM — Reception
7:00 PM — Performance + Film (1h 26m) + Discussion
“Drowned Land is a powerful documentary…Colleen Thurston masterfully connects the dots between past injustices and present-day exploitation, reminding us that history doesn’t just repeat itself; it floods back with a vengeance…or worse, disappears.” — Film Threat
ACCESSIBILITY
Tulsa Artist Fellowship is committed to making the arts accessible to all. Ticket subsidies are available—contact events@tulsaartistfellowship.org.
Open captioning (on-screen subtitles) will be provided.
A hearing loop is available in the auditorium for visitors with hearing aids or cochlear implants. Assisted listening devices are also available at the Admissions Desk.
ASL interpretation is available upon request with two weeks’ notice: 918-748-5300 or guestexperience@philbrook.org.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Samantha Crain is a Choctaw Nation singer-songwriter from Shawnee, Oklahoma, whose music blends folk, indie rock, and storytelling rooted in place and identity. Over the course of several acclaimed albums—including Kid Face, You Had Me at Goodbye, and I Guess We Live Here Now—Crain has earned national recognition for her poetic songwriting and haunting voice. Her work often explores themes of home, resilience, and Indigenous experience, and she has toured widely across the U.S. and internationally. In addition to recording and performing, Crain collaborates on film, television, and community arts projects that center Native voices and stories.
Colleen Thurston is a filmmaker, visual storyteller, and current Tulsa Artist Fellow whose work explores the intersections of land, memory, and community. Through documentary film and collaborative media projects, she focuses on stories rooted in place and the lived experiences of people connected to the landscapes they inhabit. Thurston’s films have been supported by national arts and media organizations and presented at festivals and community screenings across the United States. Her work emphasizes long-term relationships with the communities she documents, using film as a tool for reflection, dialogue, and cultural preservation.