Joanna started filmmaking in Beijing after deciding to leave the corporate and institutional world in search for new adventures. Joanna filmed and premiered her first feature documentary, Neo-Lounge, in 2007 recounting intimate stories of foreigners who went to Beijing searching to break from their past. It won four awards, including two Best Documentary awards. Her second film, The Old Fool Who Moved the Mountains, which explores an ancient Chinese fable and how it relates to three generations, premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2008. It also won two awards, including one Best Documentary award. Her third film, Sunday School, filmed in Zambia, was commissioned by the International Film Festival Rotterdam for their Forget Africa series, and premiered in 2010. Joanna also creates film installations for galleries and museums, and her most recent experimental films were screened in galleries and museums in Cebu, Manila, San Luis Potosí and Chicago in 2019. Her short films, Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos (To Calm the Pig Inside), Sol and Gabby were developed after spending time in post calamity areas in the Philippines. She is also now set to direct her first feature narrative, The Sigbin, named after a mythological creature known to be loyal to its master, which explores the relationship of an assassin and his daughter he only recently discovers.