Cruising

Al Pacino’s undercover cop hunts for a killer among the gay bars and leather scene of Manhattan, in William Friedkin’s hugely controversial thriller. As a serial killer hunts down gay men in New York’s leather scene, Pacino’s naïve cop is sent undercover into an alien world of hyper-sexual debauchery. As he immerses himself in the anonymity of the cruising scene, fantasy and reality begin to blur. Boycotted by the queer community on release, but reevaluated for its authentic portrait of a lost subculture, Friedkin’s grime-smeared, dive-bar drama remains vivid and provocative. Contains scenes of homophobia and graphic violence. The screening of Cruising on Wednesday 9 September will include an introduction.