Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
97 mins, France-USA, 2022, Digital
![](https://ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/casasusanna_med.jpg)
Irish Premiere
In the 1950s and ‘60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe space for them to express their true selves without fear of being incarcerated. Told through the memories of those whose visits to the house would change their lives, incorporating a rich trove of archival footage and photographs, the film provides a moving look back at a secret world where the persecuted and frightened found freedom, acceptance, and the courage to live out of the shadows.
Notes by David O’Mahony