A ‘talking heads’ documentary can be a bit of a chore when it’s your 33rd film of a festival but the subject matter in Sébastien Lifshitz’s heartfelt documentary keeps you engaged.

In the 60s in the United States, it was illegal for men to present as women and to be homosexual. Maria, a cisgender woman, met her husband Tito (Susanna) when he came to try on wigs in her shop ‘for a niece’. She called him on it, and from that came a lifelong relationship and a haven in the Catskills in New York State, where ‘cross dressers’ and ‘transvestites’ (the terms of the time) could be themselves.

There were cabins where husbands and wives would come for holidays, ‘female impersonator’ shows, and pretty much just usual holiday life for the times, except the husbands wore women’s clothes.

We hear from people who were there who are now ageing (Katherine and Diana) and the daughter of a man, Don, who was only happy when Donna at Casa Susanna. There are some beautifully poignant moments where an act of kindness is retold, and it says so much that these may have been few and far between. It felt a bit adrift from the present and I wanted to know more, particularly how the restrictions on gender expression and sexuality intersected.

Ultimately, it’s a sobering story of prejudice and shame and we can see how it relates to our transgender communities today.

Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
Origin: France, USA (2022)
Language: English
Genre: Documentary

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