"Peter Hujar's Day" is one of those films whose title is almost humorously straightforward, yet only gives a hint of what the experience of watching it is actually like. While true that it is about a day in the life of the late photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) that he recounts to his close friend Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) in mundane,

Below, I spoke to Sachs about his approach to adapting Rosenkrantz’s slim tome, what his film has to say about the artist’s life in the 1970s and now, and the classic independent short films that influenced the making of Peter Hujar’s Day.

Sundance: The filmmaker said making dialogue between photographer Peter Hujar and a friend "suspenseful, emotional, not boring, was an interesting challenge."

Sundance: Whishaw and Hall play 1970s New York artists in a gorgeous monologue of a movie that becomes one you want to live inside.

It's based on a transcript of Hujar's's description of what he did on one day, which in the film becomes anything but ordinary.

Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall portray Peter Hujar and Linda Rosenkrantz in Ira Sach's latest Sundance premiere, 'Peter Hujar's Day'

Ira Sachs discusses his collaboration with Ben Whishaw,, getting fired by his manager and his new Sundance drama 'Peter Hujar's Day'

Josh O'Connor and Lily LaTorre appear in Rebuilding by Max Walker-Silverman, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jesse Hope. Some dispatches out of Sundance are built around themes, premiere dates, or even locations. Sometimes it’s just three good movies. This is one of those.