Personal Problems review – an exhilarating lo-fi epic of Black working-class life in 80s New York

The director of Ganja & Hess, Bill Gunn, turns analogue video and improvisation into a work of startling intimacy, humour and emotional force In 1980, Bill Gunn, director of cult 70s horror Ganja & Hess , took on this quietly amazing micro-budget video project with author Ishmael Reed. It is an improvised melodrama in two parts about Black lives in New York, originally intended for television, and shot on analogue video. It is rough and ready, and the sound mix is sometimes very muddy indeed, but it pops with energy and life. The film anticipates by decades the world of shooting movies

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