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.

 

Attempts to conjure Flo’s spirit are made by re-archiving excerpts of his work and through the construction of an altar. The solarization of the hand-processing affects an organic instability on to the image through which the viewer sees the fleetingness of life reflected in the materiality of the film.

 

For Flo is the director’s experimentation with finding his voice for the first person narration for PEACE OF MIND, a documentary about McGarrell’s life and work in Haiti where he was living at the time of his death. PEACE OF MIND investigates the small queer movement that evolved out of the congregations at McGarrell’s office at the art center where he was the director. Cronenwett and McGarrell had a deep friendship and a collaborative partnership from the time they met in 2005 until McGarrell’s untimely death in 2010.

 

For Flo is the beginning of the story.