Producer and director Bonni Cohen founded San Francisco-based Actual Films, an independent film company, in 1998. She most recently directed and produced “The Rape of Europa”, a feature-length documentary about the fate of Europe’s art treasures during World War II. “Europa” was the fourth-highest grossing theatrical documentary of 2007 and was nominated for a Writers’ Guild of America award.

Cohen also produced “Democracy Afghan Style” (with cinematography by Jon Else), about Afghan’s constitutional process, for U.S. PBS. In 2003, also for PBS, she produced and directed “The New Heroes,” a series about social entrepreneurs, hosted by Robert Redford. Cohen produced and directed “The Nobel: Visions of Our Century”, a chronicle of 100 years of the Nobel Prize told from the perspective of 11 Nobel laureates, and co-produced “They Drew Fire”, a portrait of combat artists of World War II.

For the BBC, Cohen directed and produced “The Eye of the Storm”, a portrait of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Her other produced works include the six-part Emmy-nominated series “The Human Sexes” with Desmond Morris and “Open Outcry” (also with Jon Else). Before coming to documentary film, Cohen worked as a journalist for Reuters Television and NBC.