Peter Hujar's Day

A smoky afternoon in 1974. Photographer Peter Hujar is one of the key figures in the New York art scene. For a literary project, writer Linda Rosenkrantz asks him to describe in detail the past 24 hours of his life. Hujar talks: about life in a city where everyone wants to make art, but no one has money; about a meeting with Allen Ginsberg; about the literary merits of Susan Sontag compared to Fran Lebowitz; or simply about his dinner and cheap cigarettes. The two talk deep into the night, as only true friends can: honestly, intimately, with humor and affection. 

Peter Hujar’s Day shows a day in the life of the famous and distinctive photographer Peter Hujar (1934-1987). Hujar’s work is considered one of the most leading documentations of the artistic and queer New York of the 70s and 80s. Nothing came of Rosenkrantz’s art project, but in 2019 a transcript of her conversation with Hujar was rediscovered. Director Ira Sachs (Passages, Love is Strange) adapted their conversation as a tribute to the photographer who died far too young, but also as an ode to friendship, creativity, and a New York that now only exists in traces. His fascinating portrait of an artist and his time, powerfully portrayed by Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, received international acclaim and traveled through many film festivals.