Artists Space Presents TILL THEY LISTEN - BILL GUNN DIRECTS AMERICA

Artists Space, in collaboration with an organizing committee comprised of Bill Gunn collaborators and scholars, presents a comprehensive gallery exhibition and a series of public programs celebrating the life and multi-faceted work of the !lmmaker, playwright, novelist, and actor Bill Gunn (1929-1989).

As a Black artist working simultaneously in Hollywood and the New York theatre world, Gunn persistently struggled to produce his work as a writer and !lmmaker, and these hardships are re"ected in both his art and his archive. In a 1973 letter to The

Three decades after his death, Bill Gunn's work has begun to gain long overdue visibility through !lm retrospectives, restorations, and increased availability of his published writings. Adding to the recent scholarship around Gunn's work, this exhibition will elucidate Gunn's profound artistic vision through an unprecedented gathering of archival materials from both private collections and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's unparalleled holdings, most exhibited for the !rst time. This selection of ephemera, media, literature,

and original artworks oers a complex and intimate portrait of Gunn's seminal output, with a focus on his many unrealized projects. In conjunction with the exhibition, Artists Space presents a series of public programs, including !lm screenings, conversations, live musical performances, staged readings, and a publication of newly commissioned and previously uncollected writing.

Bill Gunn began his career in the 1950s as a stage actor, making his Broadway debut in The Immoralist (1954) with James Dean. He wrote his !rst play, Marcus in the High Grass, in 1959. He entered the !lm and television world as an actor in the 1960s with roles on many series including The Fugitive (1965) and Outer Limits (1963). A proli!c screenwriter, he was commissioned to write The Landlord (1970), adapted from the novel by Kristen Hunter and directed by Hal Ashby, and The Angel Levine (1970), adapted from a story by Bernard Malamud and directed by Ján Kadár. His many unproduced screenwriting credits include: Fame Game and Friends (both 1968) and Don't the Moon Look Lonesome (1970). One of the !rst Black !lmmakers to direct a !lm for a major Hollywood studio, Gunn made Stop in 1970, which remains to this day unreleased by Warner Bros. He went on to direct the masterpiece Ganja & Hess (1973) and the concieved for television series Personal Problems (1980) in collaboration with Ishmael Reed and Steve Cannon. His most notable screen role as an actor was in Kathleen Collins' Losing Ground (1982). His teleplay Johnnas, produced for NBC, received an Emmy Award in 1972. Gunn's theatrical productions include his plays Celebration (1967), Black Picture Show (1975), the musical Rhinestone (1982). Bill Gunn died in 1989 at the age of 59, the day before the premiere of his !nal play, The Forbidden City, at The Public Theater.

Public Programs

Sam Waymon in Concert Tuesday, June 8
8pm

Artists Space presented a special evening with Gunn's long-time collaborator, the actor and musician Sam Waymon, who performs the songs he composed for the !lm soundtrack of Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess (1973) and the original theatrical production of Black Picture Show (1975).

The Films of Bill Gunn June 11 - Thursday

Three consecutive week-long screenings celebrated Bill Gunn as a !lmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. The program included two !lms directed by Gunn, the teleseries Personal Problems (1980), co-presented with Maysles Documentary Center and screening from June
11 - 17, and Ganja & Hess (1973), co-presented by the Luminal Theater, from June 18 - 24. The !lm series ended with Kathleen Collins' Losing Ground (1982), in which Gunn stars, co-presented with Light Industry and screening from June 25 - July 1. The !lm premieres were introduced by special guests followed by Q&A's.

Black Picture Show

Sunday, June 13 8pm

Artists Space presented a virtual exploration of Bill Gunn's classic play Black Picture Show (1975). André Holland and Jason Bowen alternate in the roles of J.D. and Alexander, father and son !lmmakers who have achieved dierent measures of success and connect, spar, and commune in Bill Gunn's Black Picture Show. Originally premiered at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1975, Black Picture Show is a son's elegy for his father, a poetic and tragic work about the struggle to maintain artistic and intellectual integrity in the face of the !nancial rewards and glamour of Hollywood. In this new adaptation, director Awoye Timpo reimagines Gunn's theatrical production as a visual staged reading, yet in the form of a !lm, brilliantly conceived, photographed, and edited. Timpo and her cast have created a singular and evocative version of the play, unique in form, yet true to Gunn's vision. The play is presented in collaboration with Bell Pattern Productions, F.A.M. Creative and CLASSIX.

The play is available on Artists Space's website throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Starring Andre Holland and Jason Bowen

Ishmael Reed in Conversation Tuesday, June 22
7pm

Artists Space presented a conversation with poet, playwright, and long-time Bill Gunn collaborator Ishmael Reed and literary !gure Justin Desmangles. For the conversation, the two discuss Reed's role in publishing Gunn's writing and the diculties of !nding commercial success as a Black Artist.

Carman Moore Improvises Personal Problems Tuesday, June 29
8pm

Artists Space presented a special virtual concert with musician Carman Moore, who composed the soundtrack for Bill Gunn's Personal Problems. Moore revisits this legendary score, playing new improvisations of the songs and motifs from this made-for-tv drama.