Film-watchers of the world unite! Seeing Cary Cronenwett’s Maggots and Men, you have nothing to lose but your preconceptions of gender. This utopian re-visioning of the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921, featuring film history’s first cast of over 100 transgender actors, paints an idyllic portrait of formerly pro-Soviet sailors at the Kronstadt naval garrison who rebelled against the perceived failures of the new Bolshevik state.

A degree in Russian history and a familiarity with the work of Soviet cinema master Sergei Eisenstein will certainly deepen your understanding of this ambitious experimental film — you need neither, however, to appreciate Flo McGarrell’s stunning art direction, Jascha Ephraim’s lyrical score or the physical beauty of the trans-masculine actors. In drawing a parallel between the history of revolution and the free expression of gender, Maggots and Men evokes the poignant sense that our present world is haunted by radical potentials that have yet to be fulfilled.

This pioneering Frameline Film and Video Completion Fund winner positions the struggle for gender equality within a larger struggle for peace and justice, bringing together trans and queer communities as well as audience members drawn to the film’s political content. Ahoy Sailor!