MINESHAFT: THE CRUISING MURDERS

Director and QDoc alum, Jeffrey Schwarz in attendance.

WORLD PREMIERE — TRIBECA FESTIVAL 2026

“Captures a poignant tipping point in pre-AIDS queer culture.” — Guy Lodge, Variety 

In 1979, William Friedkin descended on New York’s West Village to make Cruising, his controversial thriller starring Al Pacino as a cop hunting a serial killer in the city’s gay leather bars. The production ignited fierce protests from queer activists who feared the film would turn gay men into predators and victims at a moment when the community was fighting for visibility and dignity. But behind the Hollywood controversy was a real-life tragedy. Jeffrey Schwarz (VITO, TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL) traces the story of Addison Verrill, a young Variety reporter murdered in 1977 after a night at the Mineshaft, while revisiting the vanished world of pre-AIDS New York that surrounded him. Part true crime, part queer cultural history, Mineshaft asks what gets remembered when Hollywood turns real lives into fiction.

KINDLY SPONSORED BY HOWIE BIERBAUM, TOM BARRETO & BRIAN SINCLAIR.