Personal Problems, Bill Gunn, 1980, 165 minutes
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
No booking required
Unseen for many years following its completion, Personal Problems is a collaboration between writer Ishmael Reed and director Bill Gunn. Conceived as an experimental soap opera exploring a working class African American couple living in New York City, Personal Problems adopts the episodic structure and themes expected of this medium whilst infusing it with a commitment to artistic experimentation and formal inventiveness. Filmed on low budget u matic video, the production was both an opportunity for African American artists to work wtih an agency denied to them by Hollywood but also a chance to create something which subverted the form of the sopa opera and challenged perceptions of African American cinema.
Synopsis
Johnnie Mae Brown (Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor) and Charles Brown (Walter Cotton)are a working-class African American couple in New York at the beginning of the 1980s.While reliant upon one another, the husband and wife have grown emotionallyestranged and are each having relationships outside the marriage. Charles’s father,Father Brown (Jim Wright) lives with the couple, and their lives are further complicatedwhen Johnnie May’s brother Bubba (Thommie Blackwell) and his wife Mary Alice(Andrew W. Hunt) come to live with them. After the sudden death of Father Brown, a funeral wake allows simmering family tensions to rise to the surface. Charles spends anintrospective day reminiscing with Father Brown’s friends. As a result of these events,Johnnie Mae and Charles rediscover their love for one another and make a consciouseffort to strengthen their relationship.
Contact name:
Matthew Anthony Barrington
Contact phone:
02076316115