Peter Hujar's Day
Ira Sachs’ captivating hangout film takes us into the 1970s New York art scene, where a photographer (the magnetic Ben Whishaw) crosses paths with Susan Sontag and Allen Ginsberg.
What would you say if you had to describe an entire day in your life? What kind of film would that make? When the one telling the story is photographer Peter Hujar—a central figure in New York’s 1970s art scene—portrayed by the magnetic Ben Whishaw, and the film is crafted by Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange, R&A 2014; Passages, R&A 2023) based on real interview material, the result is nothing short of captivating.
Writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) initiates an art project in which she asks her friends to describe, in detail, a single day of their lives. One such friend, Hujar, arrives at Rosenkrantz’s New York apartment to be interviewed. As he begins recounting his day, it quickly becomes clear that what he considers “ordinary” might seem anything but to a modern audience. At one moment, he’s chatting on the phone with Susan Sontag, and the next, he’s off to photograph poet Allen Ginsberg for The New York Times.
The conversation between the two friends drifts from Hujar’s thoughts on eating vegetables to an imaginary musician named Topaz Caucasian, and to the openly gay Hujar’s relationships with men. The entire film is set in Rosenkrantz’s apartment, yet its playful visual storytelling and the warm chemistry between the friends keep the energy high. Shot on 16mm film, the camera inventively discovers fresh angles within the single location.
Inari Ylinen
Trailer
Collaboration
