Filmmaker, Joanna Kohler, has been directing and producing social documentaries since 1998. A self-identified activist, Kohler's films have covered topics of exploitation within youth services in Minneapolis, activist work in Israel / Palestine and amateur women's boxing. Kohler began making films with In Progress, a nonprofit organization in St. Paul Minnesota.

The GUERRILLA tour is Kohler's current participatory distribution project. Kohler received a 2006 Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant for Media Literacy studies. Kohler continues training with the Institute for Cultural Affairs for participatory facilitation methods and graduated with a Social Documentary BA from the University of Minnesota in 2003. Kohler received the Jerome Foundation Media Arts Grant 2005.

Kohler’s lifetime has slowly revealed passions for work in many areas: community organizing, social work, public relations, media literacy, education, filmmaking, facilitation, lobbying and activism.  Each of these areas of labor has been experienced by Kohler on either side of the divide of the power to effect and the power of being effected.  Kohler’s over arching curiosity is power.  The power to create change, the power to voice a story, the power to be a conduit for other’s stories, the power of systematic exploitation and the power of privilege.  Kohler follows power to the second curiosity, accountability.  Accountability is a reflection to the source of power about the effects of that power.  Power is within the stories of both the perceived powerful and powerless.  Accountability happens systematically, individually and communally.  Power and accountability led Kohler to sustainability.  Sustainability is about our humanity.  Kohler’s goal is to sustain conversations about power and accountability so that new stories can develop within our communities.  Sustainability looks like collaborations between people with similar interests, transparency of a story and the tools to tell that story (Media Literacy), ownership of a story about someone else through community reflections (civic participation).  Kohler’s vision is to continue the movement to get filmmaking out of an only consumer model and into a democracy building initiative and tell great stories.