In the bustling world of independent cinema, a new film is capturing attention for its intimate portrayal of artistic struggle and friendship. Directed by Ira Sachs, Peter Hujar’s Day adapts a 1974 conversation between the late photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz into a feature-length movie starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall. The film, set entirely in a West Village apartment over the course of one day, opens in theaters on November 7, offering audiences a glimpse into the creative anxieties of a bygone era.
Sachs, known for films like Passages and The Delta, stumbled upon the source material in a recently published book. The interview, originally recorded in 1974 and released as a book in 2022, chronicles a candid discussion filled with the everyday details of life and art. According to Sachs, the project's spark came from a direct message he sent to Rosenkrantz on Instagram, initiating what would become a close collaboration.
"I didn’t do any research, so the thing that was really surprising was maybe a month later when I realized she was 89 years old and then I was DMing her," Sachs told The Verge in a recent interview. "But it was a casual back and forth. She’s super with it, and we’ve become very close in a very touching way — in a way that I think reflects something about her relationship with Peter, actually."
The director emphasized the unique bond between heterosexual women and gay men, drawing parallels to his own friendship with Rosenkrantz. This theme echoes throughout the film, which recreates the original conversation verbatim but expands it into 23 scenes spanning 12 hours. The setting, a single apartment in New York City's West Village, draws from the real-life location where Hujar lived and worked.
Sachs described the moment he knew the interview could become a film: "On the last page. Because I was very moved by the imagery and the feeling that Peter transmitted through his description of 3 in the morning, on the corner of Second Avenue and 12th Street, looking out at the city and listening to the prostitutes on the street below. I felt like that was a cinematic image and a cinematic moment."
This poignant ending, infused with melancholy, reflects on the loss of that era, including Hujar's death from AIDS in 1987, 17 years after the conversation. Sachs noted, "I could say most simply the loss of that time. But I think, more specifically, I both thought and tried not to think too much about Peter’s death 17 years later from AIDS, that the candle was blown out."
Unlike traditional biopics that span a subject's entire life, Peter Hujar’s Day focuses narrowly on this one interaction. Sachs said he was never interested in a broader biographical approach. "I wasn’t interested in making a biographical film of Peter Hujar. I was interested in making a film inspired by this particular conversation between Peter and Linda," he explained. The result is a work that captures intimacy and authenticity, much like the dense, visceral details in Proust's writing, as Sachs compared it.
Hujar, a renowned portrait photographer who captured figures like Allen Ginsberg, is portrayed not just as an artist but as an exceptional storyteller. Sachs highlighted this aspect: "The thing that kind of goes unnoticed about Hujar is he’s an exceptional storyteller. There’s something quite exceptional about his use of language and imagery that I think is quite unique."
Filming presented its own challenges. Initially, Sachs worried the confined setting might feel claustrophobic or stage-like. "I was. The boundaries, the concept at some point — about a month before we started shooting — seemed insurmountable, to be honest. I thought, ‘Uh oh, this was a mistake,’" he admitted. To overcome this, he liberated the script from strict realism, transforming the hour-and-a-half dialogue into a dynamic series of scenes.
"Constructing this script then, you have all the dialogue already. What was piecing the rest together like? I spent a couple of weeks with two stand-in actors and my cinematographer, Alex Ashe, on location in an apartment at Westbeth in the West Village, which had been donated. So we had access to this space, and I really spent time photographing these models at different times of day, in different locations. And ultimately, a sequence of those photographs became the kind of guide to how to shoot the film," Sachs recounted.
He added that decisions about scene placement were often practical, aimed at maintaining energy: "It wasn’t like I think, ‘Oh, they’re talking about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. They should be doing that on the bed.’ It was literally like, now there needs to be a cut, because the film needs to maintain an energy."
The film also delves into the realities of artistic life, including financial struggles and self-doubt. Sachs reflected on this: "I find as an audience member that there is this incredible, unexpected content in the film, which is the window it provides to how hard it is to make art. And that, for me, is something I’m happy to hear any day of the week." He pointed to Hujar's own uncertainties, such as questioning the quality of his photograph of Allen Ginsberg, as a comforting reminder that even canonized artists grapple with doubt.
"I vacillate very quickly between the two in the same way that Peter questions did he make a good photograph of Allen Ginsberg, or did he make a bad photograph of Allen Ginsberg? And I love that even Peter Hujar — who we now monumentalize and canonize as this great photographer — even Peter Hujar lived with steady doubt at the time," Sachs said. He also addressed sustainability: "Yes, yes. I think the question of sustainability is one that each of us faces with terror and occasionally hope."
As the film enters theaters amid a season of high-profile biopics, it stands out for its contained scope and affirmation of creativity as a human endeavor. Sachs views it not as nostalgia but as a contemporary conversation about the artistic process. "This is not a film that nostalgically looks back," he asserted, emphasizing its relevance today.
Looking ahead, Peter Hujar’s Day could spark renewed interest in Hujar's photography and the cultural milieu of 1970s New York. With its release on November 7, the movie invites viewers to reflect on enduring themes of friendship, loss, and the persistent challenges of creation in an ever-changing world.