#7 Peter Hujar on screen
Book release of Peter Hujar's Day by Linda Rosenkrantz and screenings by Moyra Davey, Peter Hujar, Gary Schneider and Andy Warhol
2 November 2022, 7pm
A night of screenings plus a talk by Gary Schneider to celebrate the third printing of Peter Hujar’s Day by Linda Rosenkrantz, published by Magic Hour Press. The night will include the first screening in Europe of a rare film Peter Hujar shot.
SCREENINGS
Salters Cottages by Gary Schneider, 16 min
This 16 minute 16mm silent film was shot in a community of identical Cape Cod cottages on a promontory overlooking Gardiner’s Bay in Springs, Long Island. The cottages are close together, and the film explores the voyeurism and exhibitionism of its residents. The performers are John Erdman, Peter Hujar, Suzanne Joelson and Gary Stephan and is an homage to Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour (1950).
Hujar / Palermo by Moyra Davey, 4 min
Davey’s film is a meditation on Hujar through Portraits in Life and Death (Da Capo Press, 1976), the only book Hujar published in his lifetime.
Aunte Belle Emme by Peter Hujar, 6 min
Peter Hujar, widely known for his square black and white photos of the downtown New York scene of the 70s and 80s, also experimented with film. Aunte Belle Emme (a play on the word antebellum) stars experimental drag performer Ethyl Eichelberger playing the title character. Stylistically, the film is reminiscent of both Hujar’s photos and of films from the silent era. This film has rarely been shown and will be the first time it is screened in Europe.
Screen Test [ST157]: Peter Hujar by Andy Warhol, 4 min
From 1964-66, Andy Warhol made hundreds of silent, black and white film portraits of the downtown New York cultural scene, all shot in the same deadpan style. It can be noted that Hujar’s screen test became part of a series Warhol made called The Thirteen Most Beautiful Boys (Paul Thek was also featured). Additionally, Warhol’s nickname for Hujar’s screen test was “the boy who never blinks” because Hujar is totally still and barely blinks throughout.
A talk by Gary Schneider: My Portrait Session With Peter Hujar
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Programmed by Francis Schichtel and Jordan Weitzman
About Peter Hujar’s Day: In 1974, Linda Rosenkrantz asked her friend Peter Hujar to write down everything he did on the day of December 18. The following day, Hujar met Rosenkrantz at her apartment on 94th street. She asked him in detail about the happenings of December 18 and tape-recorded their conversation. This book is a full transcript of that exchange, published for the first time since it was recorded 48 years ago.
The book was edited and designed by Jordan Weitzman and Francis Schichtel, who works at the Peter Hujar Archive and was in charge of a two and a half year project scanning all of Hujar's negatives.
Magic Hour Press is a recent extension of the podcast of the same name, which for the past five years has focused on producing in-depth interviews with established and emerging figures in the world of photography.