Defying the racially exclusive Hollywood studio system, novelist Ishmael
\nReed, Rockland County director Bill Gunn and a renegade group of artists
\nbanded together to make a \u201cmeta soap opera\u201d about the struggles of a
\nworking class couple in New York City in 1980. They illuminated Black
\nreality and soap opera banality through the story of a nurse\u2019s aid and her
\nhusband, leading us through the stresses of their lives. \u201cWith a
\nFassbinderian flair for color and a neorealist\u2019s eye for composition\u2026
\nGunn spins a potent ensemble drama from his modest domestic
\nmilieu.\u201d\u2014Hollywood Reporter. USA, 1980, 165 minutes. Zoom discussion with
\ncast and crew members Sam Waymon and Marshall Johnson, moderated by Bill
\nBatson, on 2\/21.
\nPersonal Problems was produced on 3\/4\u201d videotape in 1980 and was shown once
\non PBS. It was rediscovered in 2015 and restored, but the master tapes were
\ntoo badly degraded to bring them up to modern video standards.
\n\u201cGeorge Bernard Shaw said that \u201cIf you do not tell your stories others will
\ntell them for you and they will vulgarize and degrade you.\u201d With few
\nexceptions, this expression can be applied to Hollywood\u2019s treatment of
\nBlacks from the creation of the industry to now.\u201d \u2013 Personal Problems
\nwriter, Ishmael Reed
\n\u201cPersonal Problems is among those rare, quietly unassuming avant-garde
\nworks that takes the trouble to be genuinely entertaining while pushing
\nformal and textual boundaries.\u201d \u2014Film Comment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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