Peter Hujar’s Day: Ira Sachs’s gorgeous time capsule of New York’s 1970s downtown scene

• Reviewed from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival 

With its languidly paced long takes examining the undercurrents of a mundane daily grind, Ira Sachs’s Peter Hujar’s Day could easily be compared to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). The film is based on the transcript of an interview with celebrated photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) conducted by his writer friend Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) in her New York apartment on 19 December 1974. But Sachs’s slow-paced, verbatim exercise hews closer to Jono McLeod’s documentary My Old School (2022), which saw Alan Cumming lip-sync to interviews of a subject who declined to appear on camera, except here the original recording is lost and all that remains is a typewritten transcript. The interview was part of unrealised book by Rosenkrantz that was to chronicle one day in different artists’ lives that was uncovered in 2019 at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

While they set up for the interview, Hujar reposes on Rosenkrantz’s couch, as if the process is somehow therapeutic. Right off the bat, he starts namedropping an assortment of celebrities – of course he’s friends with Susan Sontag. But what initially feels like art world gossip quickly becomes an intriguing time capsule of life in New York’s 1970s downtown scene. Beyond hobnobbing with storied characters, there are unglamourous goings-on, such as visiting the corner store and waiting for takeout orders. When sharing a story about negotiating rates with a magazine editor, Hujar emphasises the need for an artist to develop business savvy to avoid being taken advantage of. Certain truths have remained constant – though few writers today could afford the likes of Rosenkrantz’s bright and airy loft. Instead of restaging Hujar’s memories, Sachs keeps the camera fixed on him and Rosenkrantz in and around her flat. Stephen Phelps’s sumptuous period decor and Alex Ashe’s textured 16mm photography help keep the aesthetics interesting. 

At one point, Hujar recounts how he convinced the eccentric Allen Ginsberg to pose for a New York Times portrait. Whishaw delivers the 55 pages of monologue with the impressive illusion of spontaneity. Hall, on the other hand, is the audience surrogate, smiling intently as Hujar rambles on. As afternoon fades into evening, they make their way from room to room, the balcony, the roof, and outside. Through Hujar’s anecdotes, we imagine Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs fussing over their public images and enjoying base carnal pleasures in rundown tenements. This hangout may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it always feels real.