Peter Hujard’s Day

A smoky late afternoon in 1974. Photographer Peter Hujar, one of the most important figures on the New York scene, tells his girlfriend Linda Rosenkrantz about the past 24 hours for an art project: about life in a city where everyone wants to make art but no one has any money; about a meeting with Allen Ginsberg, who suggests he have oral sex with William S. Burroughs; about the literary merits of Susan Sontag over Fran Lebowitz; or even just about his dinner. The two talk late into the night, as only close confidants can: honestly, intimately, with quiet humor and great affection.

Rosenkrantz’s art project never came to fruition, but in 2019, the transcript of the conversation was discovered in Peter Hujar’s archive. The transcript was later published as a book, and now Ira Sachs (“Keep the Lights On,” “Passages”) has turned it into a film: an intense yet wonderfully lighthearted cinematic experience that celebrates not only Peter Hujar, who died far too young—but also friendship, art, and a New York of which only traces remain today. A warm-hearted, multi-layered film about the wonders of artistic creation, brilliantly cast with Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall.