{"id":718304,"date":"2025-11-20T21:15:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=718304"},"modified":"2025-11-20T21:15:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:15:33","slug":"ira-sachs-revives-a-lost-day-in-the-life-of-peter-hujar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=718304","title":{"rendered":"Ira Sachs revives a lost day in the life of Peter Hujar"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/film-tv\/article\/69113\/1\/peter-hujars-day-ira-sachs-interview-ben-whishaw-rebecca-hall\" data-article-id=\"69113\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.36\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Film still (2025)\" class=\"img\" height=\"2160\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431188-1.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431188-1\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Film <span class=\"nowrap\">still (2025)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><span class=\"month\">November<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"20\">20,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2025<\/span><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - film-tv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Ira Sachs revives a lost day in the life of <span class=\"nowrap\">Peter Hujar<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>In Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Sachs spotlights a long-lost project featuring the era-defining photographer who captured New York\u2019s queer and artistic underground in <span class=\"nowrap\">the 1970s<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"month\">November<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"20\">20,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2025<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - film-tv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/LiamFreeman\">Liam Freeman<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<aside class=\"primary\">\n<div class=\"sticky bottom\">\n<div class=\"read-more\"><span class=\"read-more-header\">Read More<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-items\">\n<div class=\"read-more-item vertical-music\">\n<div class=\"read-more-item-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69112\/1\/why-are-mp3-players-making-a-comeback-ipod-music-spotify-algorithms\" class=\"article-list-item-image\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"skins cassie\" class=\"img\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431209-4.jpg\" title=\"1431209-4\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-item-content\"><a class=\"category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69112\/1\/why-are-mp3-players-making-a-comeback-ipod-music-spotify-algorithms\"><span class=\"title\">Why are MP3 players making a comeback?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"read-more-item vertical-beauty\">\n<div class=\"read-more-item-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69094\/1\/so-you-want-to-smell-like-roman-gods-ancient-gladiator-bacchanalian-ribaldry\" class=\"article-list-item-image\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Satyricon\" class=\"img\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431109-3.jpg\" title=\"1431109-3\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-item-content\"><a class=\"category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\">Beauty<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/69094\/1\/so-you-want-to-smell-like-roman-gods-ancient-gladiator-bacchanalian-ribaldry\"><span class=\"title\">So you want to smell like an ancient god?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"read-more-item vertical-info\">\n<div class=\"read-more-item-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/info\/article\/58286\/1\/how-to-pitch-dazed-digital-features-articles-freelance-writers-guide\" class=\"article-list-item-image\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Youth is Revolting \u2014 summer 2018\" class=\"img\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1241806.jpg\" title=\"1241806\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-item-content\"><a class=\"category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/info\">Info<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/info\/article\/58286\/1\/how-to-pitch-dazed-digital-features-articles-freelance-writers-guide\"><span class=\"title\">How to pitch to Dazed Digital<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-8-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/gallery\/36346\/0\/peter-hujar-s-day\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Film still (2025)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1960\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431188-2.jpg\" width=\"2940\" title=\"1431188-2\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/gallery\/36346\/1\/peter-hujar-s-day\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 2\" class=\"img\" height=\"1964\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431189.jpg\" width=\"2946\" title=\"1431189\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/gallery\/36346\/2\/peter-hujar-s-day\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 3\" class=\"img\" height=\"1961\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431190.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431190\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/gallery\/36346\/3\/peter-hujar-s-day\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 4\" class=\"img\" height=\"1961\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431191.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431191\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/gallery\/36346\/4\/peter-hujar-s-day\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 5\" class=\"img\" height=\"1961\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431192.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431192\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/gallery\/36346\/5\/peter-hujar-s-day\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 6\" class=\"img\" height=\"1961\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431193.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431193\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 8 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>On 19 December 1974, photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/peter-hujar\">Peter Hujar<\/a> sat down for an interview with journalist Linda Rosenkrantz at her apartment on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side. She asked him to recount the previous day in minute detail. In turn, he shared stories of a phone call with the writer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/susan-sontag\">Susan Sontag<\/a>, a photoshoot with Allen Ginsberg, his ritual of taking two naps a day, and ordering Chinese takeout with his friend, the curator Vince Aletti.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Originally intended as part of a book Rosenkrantz was planning about how artists spend their time, the project never came to fruition. Any documentation of the conversation was thought lost forever. That was until 2019, when the transcript was discovered in the Morgan Library. Published later that year by Magic Hour Press as <\/span><em><span>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/span><\/em><span>, the text has now been adapted into a film of the same name by director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/ira-sachs\">Ira Sachs<\/a>, starring Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When the film premiered at Sundance in January, its quiet, meditative quality felt like a reprieve from the noise and chaos surrounding Donald Trump\u2019s presidential inauguration, which had taken place just a week earlier. Shot on 16mm film, a medium Sachs has used on earlier works, including his debut <\/span><em><span>Delta<\/span><\/em><span>, the format was chosen for its ephemeral beauty and the way it plays with light and texture. Almost every scene in <\/span><em><span>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/span><\/em><span> could double as a portrait, with its artful compositions and moments of near-stasis, intermittently punctuated by Mozart\u2019s Requiem, creating aesthetic ruptures and a sense of the material\u2019s dominance over the audience. Together, these cinematic choices, coupled with the intimacy of the dialogue, transport viewers to a time one feels nostalgic for, even if they never lived through it, all without ever leaving the apartment, evocatively dressed in period detail: dark wood furniture, beaded curtains, and crochet cushions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"Rzp8uw-t-eA\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Hujar\u2019s photographs captured downtown New York\u2019s flourishing creative scene of the 1970s with emotional and psychological potency. Sontag once noted that his subjects \u201cappear to meditate on their own mortality.\u201d Among them were actress Candy Darling, writers William S Burroughs and Fran Lebowitz, and artist David Wojnarowicz. Yet despite his impact, when Hujar died of an Aids-related illness in 1987, he was destitute, and, as Sachs points out, discussions around art in the film rarely stray far from questions of economy. That theme is echoed in the production itself, with Westbeth serving as a location, a building that has housed low-income artists since opening around the same time that Hujar and Rosenkrantz spoke.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ahead of the release of <\/span><em><span>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/span><\/em><span> this November, Dazed sat down with Sachs in a West Village diner to talk about bringing the film to life, and his mission to nurture the next generation of queer artists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>You first encountered <em>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/em> at Les Mots \u00e0 la Bouche bookstore in Paris while filming <em>Passages<\/em>. What spoke to you about the text and compelled you to adapt it into a film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ira Sachs:<\/strong><span> I was taken with the amount of detail and the intimacy of the experience Hujar described. There was an emotional arc that didn\u2019t necessarily imply art in concept \u2014 it gave me a feeling over time, which is what I look for in movies. And the conclusion of the book, when Hujar is up late at night listening to the sounds of the sex workers on the street, is such a vivid, cinematic scene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I immediately knew I wanted to make something from this material, and I wanted to do it with Whishaw, who I was working with on <\/span><em><span>Passages<\/span><\/em><span>. I was hungry to continue that rich collaboration. <\/span><em><span>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/span><\/em><span> is an art project that could have ended up being fifteen minutes or two hours; we had a lot of freedom in that sense. I knew Whishaw would be game to make art together based on our shared interest in queer creativity, history and life \u2014 both of us looking to artists we love, some of whom are no longer here, for direction on how to live.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"6020970e-113f-4a23-8ac2-b39b00c8002a\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/1\/1431195.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.36\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 8\" class=\"img\" height=\"2160\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431195.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431195\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Film <span class=\"nowrap\">still (2025)<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>The initial conversations with Rosenkrantz expressing your interest in adapting the book took place via Instagram Messenger. How did your relationship and the conversation evolve from there?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ira Sachs:<\/strong><span> There were a few bumps along the way toward acquiring the rights \u2014 I think she was nervous about the idea of someone taking her material and whether they\u2019d do right by it, or by her. There was also a bit of glamour around the process that I think intimidated her. It took about a year for us to iron everything out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>About four months after I first wrote to <\/span><span>Rosenkrantz<\/span><span> on Instagram, I went to LA, where she\u2019s lived for decades. I went to her apartment, and we went out for lunch. From that point on, we became very familiar \u2014 we understood each other quickly. In some ways, there was a kind of replication. I\u2019m not comparing myself to Hujar, but she has an ease with people she\u2019s drawn to that\u2019s quite immediate. As a gay artist, I felt like I was someone she was naturally interested in \u2014 someone trying to make art authentically, in a way she respects and honours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The film opens with the shutting of a clapperboard as Whishaw assumes the character of Hujar. What were the ideas behind this narrative device?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ira Sachs:<\/strong><span> The thinking is abstract. For me, it was the first time I had ever worked significantly with actors not in their own accents \u2014 both Whishaw and Hall are British but adopt North American accents here. As soon as <\/span><span>Whishaw<\/span><span> became Hujar, there was a level of theatricality that I wanted to embrace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The clapperboard is part of the rapport I have with the audience \u2014 it says, I know this is a fiction. It\u2019s a reverie on the pleasures of cinema as much as it is an exploration of intimacy, history, Hujar and <\/span><span>Rosenkrantz<\/span><span>. I felt free to connect to the images as I connect to cinema itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There are conversations I\u2019m having with the likes of [Jean-Luc] Godard, [Rainer Werner] Fassbinder, [Chantal] Akerman and [Jean] Eustache. I used to be shy about saying that part of my history \u2014 part of my family \u2014 are these films that I love. Every film, in some way, is an expression of that love: for those artists and for the making of cinema itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>I had the financing, the actors, the set \u2014 everything in place. And suddenly I thought, this is a very bad idea<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Only the transcript of the conversation between Hujar and Rosenkrantz remains and there\u2019s very little, if any, footage of Hujar at all. This absence of original material must have made bringing the story to life on screen challenging?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ira Sachs:<\/strong><span> That was the hardest part, because I had this idea that I would make a film in real time \u2014 that we\u2019d shoot the conversation as if it took place over a consecutive hour and a half. But an interview, like the one we\u2019re having now \u2013 two people sitting across a table, not moving \u2013 isn\u2019t cinematic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I had the financing, the actors, the set \u2013 everything in place. And suddenly I thought, this is a very bad idea. Any attempt to get these two characters to move while staying in real time was impossible. It became a very stagnant film. I went into a kind of crisis \u2013 I wasn\u2019t sleeping for days, thinking, what have I done?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What did you draw on to resolve that challenge and find a new cinematic language for the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ira Sachs:<\/strong><span> Two things happened. First, I started looking at very personal, intimate documentaries made by a filmmaker with just a camera and a subject. <\/span><em><span>Portrait of Jason<\/span><\/em><span> by Shirley Clarke, about the self-described hustler and nightclub performer Jason L Holliday, and <\/span><em><span>My Girlfriend\u2019s Wedding<\/span><\/em><span> by Jim McBride, about his girlfriend at the time, Clarissa Dalrymple. In McBride\u2019s film, at one point she\u2019s sitting on the couch, then cut \u2014 they\u2019re on the terrace overlooking New York \u2014 then cut again, and she\u2019s in bed talking to him in the middle of the night. I could see how time could move through cinematic ellipses, and that liberated me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The second thing that happened is that I took two stand-ins to the location and, with my cinematographer Alex Ashe, we filmed them at different times of day in the space, which was by then fully decorated. I had all these images in my Notes app, and when I looked through them, I realised there was a film there. If they were in bed, then outside, then in the kitchen, then in the dining room \u2014 that\u2019s a movie. It\u2019s a series of images that unfold over time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That became both my pleasure and my greatest interest: thinking about how these two people could embody a portrait as an examination of light, space and form. This film, in a way, is exactly that \u2014 with the form being Hujar.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"52759e7d-9704-4f6d-9051-b39b00c7f2e8\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/1\/1431191.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.36\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PETER HUJARS DAY _ STILL 4\" class=\"img\" height=\"2160\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1431191-1.jpg\" width=\"2942\" title=\"1431191-1\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Film <span class=\"nowrap\">still (2025)<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>How closely does the film follow the text of the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ira Sachs:<\/strong><span> The book is an edited version of the original transcript. When I was working on the screenplay, I went back to the Morgan Library, where the transcript is held, and brought back some things that hadn\u2019t been used \u2014 the whole discussion about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, for instance. So the book preserves this one afternoon, and the film preserves just a little bit more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That said, I had no rules. Certain lines came out because they didn\u2019t feel right for the film, but no words were added. I didn\u2019t choose the locations based on what they were talking about \u2014 it was simply based on what I needed at that time. Whishaw used Hujar\u2019s rhythms verbatim. The process was like doing a play without rehearsal, or like experimental jazz \u2014 finding the pauses, the repetitions, the amendments. It\u2019s very musical language. His performance is beautiful; exceptionally fluid, easy, insightful, original.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Even though Hujar has the majority of the dialogue in the film, you never feel Rosenkrantz\u2019s character is secondary. How did you maintain that sense of balance?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sachs:<\/strong><span> What I\u2019m struck by is that Whishaw had a lot of text, and Hall had a lot of silence, and yet together they created a very even two-hander. Part of that is because Hall is an actress and a writer \u2014 a writer without words, in this case \u2014 but she\u2019s really telling a story of friendship, love, loss, curiosity and tenderness. There\u2019s so much writing in her physical gestures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a way, the three of us were all writers. Along with Hujar and <\/span><span>Rosenkrantz<\/span><span>, it\u2019s a five-person collaboration \u2014 and each of us had a part of equal priority.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s a point in the film where Rosenkrantz says the reason she\u2019s doing these interviews \u2014 like the one with Hujar \u2014 is because she wants to hear about how people fill their time. Was it ever in your consciousness, personally or from an audience perspective, to make people more mindful of time and how precious it is?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sachs:<\/strong><span> One of the things that interests me in movies, and what I aim for in my own, is capturing the ephemeral. That\u2019s partly why I don\u2019t rehearse with my actors: once you rehearse, you start creating a <\/span><em><span>then<\/span><\/em><span> and a <\/span><em><span>maybe<\/span><\/em><span>, instead of the <\/span><em><span>here<\/span><\/em><span> and <\/span><em><span>now<\/span><\/em><span>. Even if a film is set in the past, it\u2019s always about the present \u2014 this one is about 2025; it\u2019s about these actors, in this room, at this time, in this moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Hujar\u2019s power of recollection isn\u2019t usual \u2014 there\u2019s genius in it. His memory and his attention to detail are almost photographic. As a director, I\u2019m more interested in others; I like to be an observer who notices the details of another person or character, and tries to understand how text and subtext interact with space and time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Hujar has a real ability to share the circular nature of his own thought \u2014 including his great doubts about himself and his work \u2014 which mirrors what I experience every day as an artist: moments of confidence and moments of doubt. You could say there\u2019s a comparison to <\/span><em><span>Ulysses<\/span><\/em><span> by James Joyce or <\/span><em><span>Mrs Dalloway<\/span><\/em><span> by Virginia Woolf, in their ability to describe the creative process. And for me, that gives comfort in my own daily struggle to make things I care about.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Hujar has a real ability to share the circular nature of his own thought \u2014 including his great doubts about himself and his work \u2014 which mirrors what I experience every day as an artist: moments of confidence and moments of doubt<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Rosenkrantz and Hujar\u2019s emotions at the end of the film are ambiguous, and could be interpreted as poignant or even sombre. Did you want to communicate what was to come for Hujar and his community \u2014 the sense of impending loss knowing that he, and so many of those around him, would later be taken by the HIV-AIDS pandemic?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sachs:<\/strong><span> It was something we all knew on set, even if we didn\u2019t discuss it. That loss was present without being spoken \u2014 and I think it\u2019s there in the images. There\u2019s a shot of what remains of the piers on the Hudson River, those metal spikes still rising out of the water. They\u2019re like evidence of a rich, fascinating culture of sex and art that once existed there \u2014 a culture that was profoundly altered by AIDS and by gentrification. So yes, it was on my mind, quietly, even if unspoken.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>In 2009, you established Queer | Art, a non-profit supporting LGBTQ+ artists \u2014 a mission that feels especially urgent in light of federal cuts to arts funding under the Trump administration. Why is this mission important to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sachs:<\/strong><span> I never had a queer mentor myself. There\u2019s been a paucity \u2014 a real absence \u2014 of those relationships, partly because of the decimation caused by AIDS, and partly because, as queer makers, everyone was fighting for space. That space was hard to win, and so there hasn\u2019t always been an environment of generosity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I\u2019ve never had an older queer filmmaker tell me anything about my work. With Queer | Art, I wanted to create those intergenerational conversations, because they\u2019re so essentially necessary. My conversations with Alex Ashe were one of those \u2014 two people of different generations who live for cinema. The film, in many ways, is a testament to that: an intergenerational dialogue about movies, and about our shared love for the impact of the image. I love meeting people in his generation who devour cinema.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day <em><span>is now showing in select theatres across the US.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"article-footer\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"article-series\">\n<h4 class=\"heading\">More on these topics<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series\"><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/ira-sachs\">Ira Sachs<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/peter-hujar\">Peter Hujar<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/new-york\">New York<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/ben-whishaw\">Ben Whishaw<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/susan-sontag\">Susan Sontag<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/allen-ginsberg\">Allen Ginsberg<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/william-s-burroughs\">William S Burroughs<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"grid\">\n<div class=\"lava-lamp\">\n<div class=\"lava-lamp-text-container\">\n<h3 class=\"lava-lamp-subheading\">Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid section-header\">\n<div class=\"section-header__link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/69113\/1\/film-tv\"><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"section-header__title\">READ MORE<\/h2>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid tag-article-list\">\n<div class=\"swiper swiper-latest\">\n<div class=\"swiper-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" 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class=\"card-latest__title\">The story behind Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 twisted new alien comedy<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/68954\/1\/the-mastermind-art-heist-drama-josh-oconnor-kelly-reichardt-interview-film\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The-Mastermind_Still-04_&#169;2025_Mastermind-Movie-Inc\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1429340-4.jpg\" title=\"1429340-4\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Josh O\u2019Connor and Kelly Reichardt on planning the perfect art heist<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/68854\/1\/dazed-and-dazed-club-is-hosting-a-special-preview-of-bugonia\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bugonia, 2025 (Film Still)\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1427081-4.jpeg\" title=\"1427081-4\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Dazed Club is hosting a free screening of Bugonia<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p> Source URL: https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/69113\/1\/peter-hujars-day-ira-sachs-interview-ben-whishaw-rebecca-hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Film still (2025) November\u00a0 20,\u00a0 2025 Film &amp; TVQ+A Ira Sachs revives a lost day in the life of Peter Hujar In Peter Hujar\u2019s Day, Sachs spotlights a long-lost project featuring the era-defining photographer who captured New York\u2019s queer and artistic underground in the 1970s November\u00a0 20,\u00a0 2025 Film &amp; TVQ+A TextLiam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":718305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-718304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=718304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/718305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=718304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=718304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=718304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}