Cary Cronenwett

Cary Cronenwett directs and produces films that foreground forgotten histories and marginalized stories with an emphasis on inclusivity and process. The San Francisco Guardian granted him the 2009 Bay Area Goldie Award for Local Discovery after the release of his film, Maggots and Men, an epic collaboration with an ensemble cast that brought together close to 100 transgender actors and crew. In 2018 he directed a short, Eisha Love: A Trans Woman of Color in Chicago, that was part of the Emmy Award winning series ACLU: Trans in America and is currently developing this project into a feature documentary. His work, both documentary and narrative, has screened in numerous festivals. He holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a BA from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Originally from Oklahoma, he is currently based in Los Angeles.

Eisha Love: A Trans Woman of Color in Chicago (ACLU Trans in America series)

With trans visibility at an all-time high, we must remember that visibility is not a substitute for equality. Trans filmmaker Cary Cronenwett tackles this disparity in a new short film series with the ACLU: Trans in America.   The short he directed for the series, Eisha Love: A Trans Woman of Color in Chicago, follows a trans woman who was incarcerated in a men’s jail after acting in self-defense. Now, as she rebuilds her life and continues to process the impact of her incarceration, Love faces the challenge of trying to get a steady job as an out trans woman with a criminal record. Cronenwett is currently expanding the project into a feature documentary. (2018)

For Flo

A poem to a dead friend, For Flo, is the filmmaker’s attempt to capture the magic of his brief relationship with his good friend and collaborative partner, Flo McGarrell. The piece revolves around a dream McGarrell had as a child that awakened a realization of his transgender identity.  

Made with support from the Robert Giard Fellowship. (2012)

Maggots and Men Trailer

Maggots and Men is an experimental historical narrative, set in a mythologized, post-revolutionary Russia that re-imagines/queers the story of the 1921 uprising of the Kronstadt sailors with a twist of gender anarchy. Agit-prop theater group Blue Blouse guides the viewer through the story, which is narrated by fictionalized letters written by Stepan Petrichenko, the leader of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee. (2009)