Joel Kurtz majored in sculpture at Massachusetts College of Art (with an emphasis in glass) and minored in performance art through the Studio for Interrelated Media. As a SIM student he produced and directed performance works as well as performed in movement based performance art pieces.

In June of 2008, he left his nine year position as a sculpture teacher in order to pursue training in video production and editing at Berkeley City College with the goal of combining his passions for art, education and digital media. This was followed by a production internship at KQED TV, San Francisco, working on cultural segments for the program "This Week in Northern California".

Joel has produced and directed, "Buying Time: A Portrait of the Artist Nikki Schrager", a documentary short, "Longing for the Background", a piece that documents an installation by kinetic sculptor Therese Lahaie at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, and "Using Multi-media in the 21st Century Classroom", a work that promotes a series of workshops led by Dr. Joanie Gillespie.

In 2009 he founded Codex Films with the aim of producing educational and instructional films with a specific focus on the visual arts.