The photographer Peter Hujar, whose images exist in an important lineage and dialogue with the work of groundbreaking gay artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and David Wojnarowicz, forms the center of the latest movie by fearless independent American filmmaker Ira Sachs. Based on rediscovered transcripts from an unused 1974 interview by nonfiction writer Linda Rosenkrantz (played by Rebecca Hall), in which she asked Hujar (Ben Whishaw) to narrate the events of the previous day in minute detail, Peter Hujar’s Day is a mesmerizing time warp, an illustration of the life of the creative mind, the quotidian and the imaginative at once, fully and lovingly inhabited by its two brilliant actors.

On the occasion of Peter Hujar’s Day opening at Film at Lincoln Center this Friday, November 7, FLC and Janus Films present a deep-dive discussion into the inspiration behind the film and the connection between Peter Hujar and his deeply felt legacy in New York City. Held in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, this free talk with writer/director Ira Sachs will be moderated by Antonio Monda, writer and Artistic Director of the international literary festival Le Conversazioni. Following the talk, FLC will host a reception to celebrate the opening of a special exhibition of rare contact sheets and prints of Peter Hujar’s work in the Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theater, curated by Paris McGarry Gil and graciously provided by the Morgan Library.

Free tickets will be available at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center box office on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to the event.

When he died at age 53 in November 1987, Peter Hujar possessed 5,752 black-and-white contact sheets that documented his creative evolution, from 1955 until the end of his life. In 2013 the contact sheets were acquired through the Charina Endowment Fund for The Peter Hujar Collection at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Next year, the Morgan will present Hujar: Contact (May 22 – October 25, 2026), an exhibition that will explore the full length of the artist’s career, featuring 113 contact sheets and 21 never-before-exhibited prints from the collection. Visit themorgan.org for details.