One of the most curious filmmakers in the history of American cinema has to be Bill Gunn, the director of an experimental soap opera, Person Problems, which was conceived by one of the most curious writers in American letters, Ishmael Reed. Gunn was not only good friends with James Dean, but he also wrote the script for Hal Ashby's first film, The Landlord. (Ashby is famous for Harold and Maude and Being There.) Gunn never became famous because, forgive the pun, he stuck to his guns. Two years after completing Personal Problems, Gunn played a narcissistic painter in Kathleen Collins's masterpiece Losing Ground.