Leaving his girlfriend at home, he descends into the Meatpacking District’s leather bars and underground S&M world. But the deeper he goes, the harder it becomes to return to the life he knew. More than four decades later, Cruising still inspires fierce debate—an invaluable time capsule of a pre-AIDS New York and a vanished subculture, or a lurid piece of voyeuristic exploitation? Jeffrey Schwarz’s new documentary Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, screening directly before the film, dives headfirst into that enduring controversy.

Wherever you put your hanky in the debate, Cruising remains a fascinating, unsettling and thrilling piece of cinema from one of American film’s most fearless and adventurous directors. Fiercely protested during its production and attacked by many critics upon release, the film has since undergone a remarkable reappraisal, embraced by some as an unfiltered record of a leather culture and a New York that would soon be irrevocably changed. Ambiguous, sexually charged and deliberately disorienting, Cruising still refuses to provide easy answers—and nearly five decades later, it hasn’t lost its ability to provoke.