PETER HUJAR’S DAY movie poster | ©2025 Janus Films

Peter Hujar was a New York-based photographer in the 1960s through the 1980s. Although he became much more famous after his death in 1987 than he had been in life, he was already acknowledged as an influential figure, known for the authenticity he captured in his mostly black-and-white work.

On December 19, 1974, Hujar sat down with his good friend Linda Rosenkrantz, who at that point was planning to do a book of interviews with a variety of people she knew. While that project never materialized, the transcript of Rosenkrantz’s interview with Hujar was located in 2019 and published in 2022 as the book PETER HUJAR’S DAY.

Now director/scenarist Ira Sachs has adapted that tome into a one-hour-and-sixteen-minute feature, starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall as, respectively, Hujar and Rosenkrantz.

PETER HUJAR’S DAY begins with an offscreen “Take One,” letting us know that this is all being acted, scripted, framed and so on. Sachs breaks things up with alterations of costume, framing, background and more, the way a photographer changes things up with a subject.

And yet, perhaps because of underscoring the artifice of what we’re watching (it’s actors and interpretation, not a documentary), PETER HUJAR’S DAY feels extraordinarily lifelike. Often, movies (or plays, for that matter) that consist almost entirely of conversation become frustrating for the viewer, stuck as a spectator who cannot participate.

Somehow, Sachs and the wholly convincing Whishaw and Hall make us feel included, like we’re hanging around with friends who are making observations about other people we have heard of or know. We don’t need to argue or interject, but we feel like we’re there. There’s also a huge wealth of platonic love between Peter and Linda, expressed mainly in touch and tone of voice rather than words. It’s a pleasure to be in the warmth of their companionship.

The discussion is both light and profound, without any pretension in the latter. Peter thinks he hasn’t done much the day before, but by the time he’s done recounting his activities, it seems like he could fill up a Leo Tolstoy-sized novel with the whole of it. Matters like whether the prickly poet Allen Ginsberg will let Hujar photograph him become topics of suspense.

While Peter and Linda aren’t seeking to educate one another, we glean a lot of details about the intellectual scene of the day in New York. (We may also want to weep when they commiserate over the high price of gasoline in 1974 – sixty-three cents a gallon! – and other bygones.)

PETER HUJAR’S DAY is filled with what a fact-based piece about a photographer should include: art, beauty and history. But it also has lively, beguiling charm. If you feel an urge to punctuate your day by relaxing for an hour and a bit with some good company, this movie provides it.

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