Desc: Filthy Theater: A film About Joel Gersmann: Directed by Daniel Levin. Filthy Theater tells the story of Joel Gersmann, the lone genius playwright who created over 100 original experimental plays and staged them in a small black box theater over the course of 30+ years in Madison WI. Gersmann baffled, entertained, and infuriated his audiences, his friends and his actors. He died in 2005 having published only one of his plays and having never bothered to perform any of his work outside of his own theater. Filthy Theater tells the story of an artist who aimed only to create, defying the conventional wisdom that art should be disseminated, popularized, and remembered. The film asks why this approach matters, and shows how it has affected the people closest to Gersmann and his work.