Filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders): "Half The Audience Was In Leather"

Dennis is join via Zoom by documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz to discuss his newest film Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, which is about the making of the controversial William Friedkin film Cruising, the real life murders it was inspired by and the gay activist movement it inspired. Jeffrey talks about the first time he saw the film, why he was inspired to make the doc, star Al Pacino's feelings about the film, the surprising discoveries he made along the way that changed the direction of the film and how the film, shot in 1979, is also a visual documentation of a time of sexual freedom that was soon to be decimated by AIDS. He also talks about his exploration into the murder of Addison Verrill, a Variety reporter in NYC, who was killed by a man he picked up in a bar named Paul Bateson. Other topics include: which of his docs has been the most widely seen, how he gets reluctant subjects to agree to be interviewed, the current landscape for docs in general, his mission to preserve queer stories while the people involved in them are still alive, and the building anticipation for his next film Goddess: The Fall and Rise of Showgirls. www.automatpictures.com