In 1974, writer Linda Rosenkrantz sat down with pioneering queer photographer Peter Hujar as part of a project for which she had subjects record everything that happened during a single day, and then talk with her about that day. She didn’t end up using the interview, but decades later, the rediscovered transcript became the basis for her book Peter Hujar’s Day (2022). The book has now been adapted into a feature film that revives the New York arts scene of the 1970s, during which “no one was making any money,” as director Ira Sachs put it, starring Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz. Peter Hujar’s Day (2025) is just one of several movies playing in this year’s New York Film Festival that tackle what it takes to live and work as an artist.
The New York arts scene is a character in a much more literal way in “Doomed and Famous” (2025). The short film stars the Lower East Side’s Miguel Abreu Gallery, specifically its 2021 exhibition of the same name. The short is essentially a cinematic version of a walkthrough, with curator Adrian Dannatt guiding the viewer through works drawn from his collection, including those by Nan Goldin, Isamu Noguchi, Picasso, and many more. His musings blur artistic merits with personal meaning; curation becomes memoir.
Film still of “Doomed and Famous” (2025), directed by Bingham Bryant (courtesy Sequence Pictures)
Every festival season sees a new rotation of biographies of artists and performers. This year’s NYFF brings us portraits of Bruce Springsteen, lyricist Lorenz Hart, and comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara (directed by Ben Stiller, their son), plus a whole miniseries about Martin Scorsese (all 2025). Of particular note is Nouvelle Vague (2025), a reconstruction of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s landmark lovers-on-the-run film Breathless (1960) and a tribute to the namesake French cinematic movement, featuring cameos from practically every one of its major figures. I doubt Godard would approve of such a sentimental and formally conventional tribute, but it does highlight how Breathless remains a marvel even after all these decades.
One cinematic biography is coming to the festival by way of the archive. Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars, originally released in 1985 but long since lapsed into obscurity, has been restored through a painstaking 12-year process. The documentary shadows the late influential experimental theater director during his (unfortunately doomed) quest to create a magnum opus opera to accompany the 1984 Summer Olympics, stymied by the logistical challenges of coordinating six different composers from as many countries.
Film still of Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars (1985), directed by Howard Brookner
Other films are artistic in form rather than content. Sharon Lockhart’s latest, Windward (2025), presents 12 extended outdoor tableaux captured around the shores of Fogo Island in Canada’s Maritimes region. The stillness of the images heightens the impact of weather events in these landscapes, as well as the movement of humans within them. James Benning, also known for his fixation on landscapes, opts for a more micro view with Little Boy (2025), which comprises close-ups of a variety of toys from after World War II being assembled and painted. Audio of political speeches like Eisenhower’s farewell address lends a sinister edge, implying that such mundane pleasures are secured by destructive power structures.
Meanwhile, Kahlil Joseph debuts a film evolved from “BLKNWS” (2020), his installation project of the same name imagining a sophisticated news channel by and for Black people that illuminates the everyday racism of traditional news media. The piece enjoyed a celebrated run in some unconventional spaces amid pandemic-era restrictions. In BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (2025), Joseph expands the idea to feature length. Made in collaboration with artists including Arthur Jafa and Garrett Bradley, the “news segments” feature everything from a fictional future space voyage to retellings of the life of W.E.B. Du Bois.
In many ways, it has become even more difficult for working artists in New York since Peter Hujar’s day half a century ago. Bringing things full circle within the NYFF slate, Drunken Noodles (2025) follows the romantic travails of a modern-day young Argentinian art student who moves across continents to fulfill his big-city dreams. Perhaps at the 103rd edition of the festival in 50 years, that film will screen in the Revivals section while a new film will document what it’s like to be a New York artist in 2075, and the cycle will spin ever onward.
Film still of Nouvelle Vague (2025), directed by Richard Linklater (image courtesy Netflix)
Film still of BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2025), directed by Kahlil Joseph (courtesy Rich Spirit)
The New York Film Festival begins September 26 and continues through October 13 at various venues around New York City.
