"Maggots and Men" premiered on 21 July 2009 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco as part of the LGBTQ Frameline33 Film Festival. "Maggots and Men" is filmed in black and white and the dialogue is in Russian. The film focuses on the Kronstadt rebellion, an uprising of sailors at the Kronstadt naval base in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and merges the sailor genre with the "anarchist politics" of the time and trans issues. Additionally, the film deals with concepts of masculinity in society and creates a "space in which sailors reshape meanings assigned to maleness". In an interview with the San Francisco Film Society, Cronenwett said that he feels it is important to "contextualize LGBT struggles for equality within a larger social movement" which is what he strived to do in creating this film. In addition to this, Cronenwett added that he feels this film "touches on a lot of issues that are relevant today: Labor struggles, police violence, media control".