Back in 2022, Emmy Award filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz was given an award from The Frameline Completion Fund. They provide grants to both emerging and established filmmakers to fund their works in progress. In Schwarz’s case, it was to help him complete his highly anticipated Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, in which he  peels back the layers of controversy surrounding the making of the 1980 thriller Cruising. 

When William Friedkin’s movie was released all those years ago, the fierce protests that seemed to emanate from the entire queer community were totally unprecedented. All the anger was aimed squarely at the filmmaker who was accused of blurring the boundaries between cinematic fiction and the real-life tragedy of a serial killer targeting gay men in New York’s leather bars.

Schwarz has a remarkable record for revisiting queer history with a slew of successful films such as  Vito, I Am Divine, and Queerguru’s personal favorite Tab Hunter Confidential. Judging by the trailer just released, it seems he has done it again.  ‘Mineshaft,’ which includes some remarkable original archive footage, will have its World Premiere at Tribeca, and then QG will catch you with it when it next screens at the Provincetown Film Festival