Joanna Hay is a documentary filmmaker and exhibit creator focused on arts, culture, civil rights, and regional history. Her films are held in major institutions and supported by partners like the National Park Service and NEA. Her award-winning, oral history–based work highlights community storytelling. She is also a musician, nonprofit co-founder, and arts leader.

Stories From the Balcony is an exploration of community, love, and belonging at Frankfort’s Grand Theatre in Kentucky during Jim Crow, told through Black and white residents, Tony Award–winner George C. Wolfe, and activist Katima Smith-Willis, reflecting on segregation, resistance, and the fight for a more just world.