Upcoming Screenings

Drunken Master
April 1st, 2023

Drunken Master


Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle as we screen five classic martial arts films from the 1970s. Last up is Yuen Woo-Ping’s Drunken Master [Zui quan] [1978] starring Bruce Lee.


Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Downtown Central Library Auditorium
1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203
(Enter from Clinton Street between Oak and Washington Streets)
716-858-8900 • www.BuffaloLib.org
COVID protocol will be followed.


TrailerSynopsisDirector BioLinks

The father of Wong Fei-hong, who has been attempting to teach his son kung-fu, but has found him too disobedient to teach and decides to send him off to his uncle, a cruel and torturous master of the 8-Drunken Genii kung-fu. After much suffering the son comes back to rescue the father.

Photo by K.Y. Cheng.

“Filmmaking is always about working with and working around limitations. And often it is because of limitations that filmmakers are come up creative ideas and solutions.”

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Yuen was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. With a support of Ng See-yuen, he achieved his first directing credit in 1978 on the seminal Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, starring Jackie Chan, followed quickly by Drunken Master. The films were smash hits, launching Jackie Chan as a major film star, turning Seasonal Films into a major independent production company, and starting a trend towards comedy in martial arts films that continues to the following two decades.

Yuen went on to work with such figures as Sammo Hung in Magnificent Butcher (1979), Yuen Biao in Dreadnaught (1981), Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey (1993), and Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in Tai Chi Master (1993), and Wing Chun (1994).

Yuen’s works, particularly his action choreography on Fist of Legend (1994), attracted the attention of the Wachowskis, who hired him as the martial arts choreographer on The Matrix (1999). The success of this collaboration, plus his action choreography on the following year’s hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, made him a highly sought after figure in Hollywood. He went on to work on the Matrix sequels and Kill Bill (2003). More recent action choreography duties in Hong Kong cinema have included Kung Fu Hustle (2004), starring Stephen Chow, and Fearless (2006), starring Jet Li.

Yuen also choreographed the action sequences in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), a Hollywood martial arts–adventure film, which was the first film to star together two of the best-known names in the martial arts film genre, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. He worked as a fight choreography consultant on Ninja Assassin (2009).

In late 2010, Yuen released his first film as director since 1996, True Legend, starring Vincent Zhao, Jay Chou and David Carradine (in a minor role). Yuen went on to work as stunt co-ordinator in two South Indian films, Enthiran (2010) and I (2014), both directed by S. Shankar. In 2015, Yuen directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, re-creating many of his signature action choreographies.

The annual and highly anticipated Hong Kong International Film Festival was held for its 45th edition in April 2021. Yuen is one of the six veteran Hong Kong filmmakers who directed local director Johnnie To Kei-fung’s highly anticipated anthology series Septet: The story of Hong Kong. The other filmmakers include Sammo Hung, Ann Hui On-wah, Patrick Tam, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. The short files were shot entirely on 35mm film with each of them touches on a nostalgic and moving story set across different time periods, with every one acting as an ode to the city.[2]

Filmography:

  • Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (segment Homecoming) (2020)
  • Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy (2018)
  • The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)
  • True Legend (2010)
  • The Tai Chi Master (2003)
  • Tai Chi II (1996)
  • The Red Wolf (1995)
  • Fire Dragon (1994)
  • Wing Chun (1994)
  • Tai Chi Master (1993)
  • Heroes Among Heroes (1993)
  • Iron Monkey (1993)
  • Last Hero in China (1993)
  • Tiger Cage III (1991)
  • Tiger Cage II (1990)
  • In the Line of Duty IV (1989)
  • Tiger Cage (1988)
  • The Close Encounters of Vampire (1986)
  • Ching fung dik sau (1985)
  • Siu Tai Gik (1984)
  • Tian shi zhuang xie (1983)
  • Oriental Voodoo (1982)
  • Kei moon duen gap (1982)
  • Legend of a Fighter (1982)
  • Dreadnaught (1981)
  • The Buddhist Fist (1980)
  • The Magnificent Butcher (1979)
  • Dance of the Drunken Mantis (1979)
  • Drunken Master (1978)
  • Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978)

Here is a curated selection of links for additional insight/information:

Bambi, A French Woman
April 22nd, 2023

Bambi, A French Woman


Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle for Love is Love: Sébastien Lifshitz’s LGBTQ+ Portraits, five films directed by Frenchman Sébastien Lifshitz. First up is Bambi, A French Woman [Bambi, une nouvelle femme] [2021], a new longer cut of his 2013 documentary short Bambi.


Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Downtown Central Library Auditorium
1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203
(Enter from Clinton Street between Oak and Washington Streets)
716-858-8900 • www.BuffaloLib.org
COVID protocol will be followed.


TrailerSynopsisDirector BioLinks

Synopsis courtesy of website and The Party Sales:

Bambi was born in the suburb of Algiers in Bordj-Ménaïel in 1935. Her name was Jean-Pierre. Against all expectations, he tears himself away from his native land that he loves so much to join the Paris of the 1950s. He then begins a new life, where he will be able to free himself from his fears, from his malaise which the secret carefully. Thanks to the world of cabarets and his new friends at the Caroussel, he began his transformation and very quickly became a music hall star, better known as Bambi. Jean-Pierre is now called Marie-Pierre Pruvot, she is 77 years old and lives on a small pension from the National Education. It is she who tells us about her funny life.

The film will be constructed as a sort of collage made up of photos, super 8 images filmed by Bambi herself, or by her friends, including the famous Ladybug, the first famous transsexual in France; scraps of archives recovered from French or Italian television; excerpts from fiction films where Bambi played small roles.

Bambi’s life is almost a screenwriter’s invention, except it’s a real life and she’s the one who lived it. With this mosaic of sources, we are going to tell the story of a woman who was multiple, the story of a life where Bambi had to glue together faces so different from herself.

Director’s Cut:

From the day she was born in Algiers, Marie-Pierre has always wanted to wear dresses and has stubbornly refused her given name: Jean-Pierre. At the age of 17, her life takes a major turn when she comes upon a drag show on tour: le Carrousel de Paris. Marie-Pierre becomes Bambi, and within a few years establishes herself as a legendary figure of the Parisian cabaret scenes of the 50s and 60s. By collecting the story of one of the first transgender women, Sebastien Lifshitz continues his work initiated with Wild Side and Little Girl and portraits a forceful personality. This updated version of the film extends and deepens the short-film released in 2013 to become the feature-length version the director has always dreamt of making.

Sébastien Lifshitz, © AGAT FILMS & CIE – ARTE France. Courtesy of Music Box Films

“My work centers essentially on the idea of the portrait, that is to pick an individual and try to picture his or her inner landscape – one could almost call it the inner space. And the discontinued narrative helps me to approach it.”

Courtesy of The Lives of Thérèse press kit:

After studying art history, Sébastien Lifshitz began working in the world of contemporary art in 1990, assisting curator Bernard Blistène at the Pompidou Center, and photographer Suzanne Lafont. In 1994, he turned to filmmaking with his first short, Il faut que je l’aime.

In 1995, he made a documentary about film director Claire Denis, and in 1998 he completed his mid-length feature Open Bodies, which was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Cannes and Clermont-Ferrand, and won the Prix Jean Vigo and the Kodak Award for Best Short Film. In 1999, he directed Cold Lands for Arte as part of their series Gauche-Droite. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival.

In 2000, he directed his first full-length feature, Come Undone, hailed by the critics and released internationally. In 2001, his second full-length feature, a documentary – road movie entitled The Crossing, was selected for the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes. In 2004 he began shooting Wild Side, which went on to be selected for numerous international festivals and won, among other awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award. In 2009 he shot Going South, which was selected for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. Then in 2012, he directed Les Invisibles, a documentary film selected in Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection. The film won the César (French Academy Award) for Best Documentary of 2013. That same year, he completed the documentary Bambi which was presented at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award. In 2014, Sébastien Lifshitz received the «Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.»

Filmography:

  • Casa Susanna (2022)
  • Bambi, une nouvelle femme [Bambi, A French Woman] (2021)
  • Petite Fille [Little Girl] (2020)
  • Avenue de lamballe (2019)
  • Adolescents (2019)
  • Les vies de Thérèse [The Lives of Thérèse] (2016)
  • Bambi (2013)
  • Les invisibles [The Invisibles] (2012)
  • Plein sud [Going South] (2009)
  • Jour et nuit (2008)
  • Les temoins (2006)
  • Wild Side (2004)
  • La traversée [The Crossing] (2001)
  • Presque rien [Come Undone] (2000)
  • Les terres froides [Cold Lands] (1999)
  • Les corps ouverts [Open Bodies] (1998)
  • Claire Denis la vagabonde (1995)
  • Il faut que je l’aime (1994)

Here is a curated selection of links for additional insight/information:

Les Invisibles
April 29th, 2023

Les Invisibles


Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle for Love is Love: Sébastien Lifshitz’s LGBTQ+ Portraits, five films directed by Frenchman Sébastien Lifshitz. Next up is Les Invisibles [2012].


Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Downtown Central Library Auditorium
1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203
(Enter from Clinton Street between Oak and Washington Streets)
716-858-8900 • www.BuffaloLib.org
COVID protocol will be followed.


TrailerSynopsisDirector BioLinks

Synopsis courtesy of The Party Sales:

Men and women, born between the wars. They have nothing in common except their homosexuality, and their decision to live openly at a time when society rejected them. They’ve loved, struggled, desired, made love. Today they tell us about their pioneering lives, and how they navigated the desire to remain ordinary with the need to liberate themselves in order to thrive. They were fearless.

Tidbits:

  • Cannes Film Festival – 2012
  • BFI London Film Festival – 2012
  • César Awards – 2013 – Winner: Best Documentary Film
Sébastien Lifshitz, © AGAT FILMS & CIE – ARTE France. Courtesy of Music Box Films

“My work centers essentially on the idea of the portrait, that is to pick an individual and try to picture his or her inner landscape – one could almost call it the inner space. And the discontinued narrative helps me to approach it.”

Courtesy of The Lives of Thérèse press kit:

After studying art history, Sébastien Lifshitz began working in the world of contemporary art in 1990, assisting curator Bernard Blistène at the Pompidou Center, and photographer Suzanne Lafont. In 1994, he turned to filmmaking with his first short, Il faut que je l’aime.

In 1995, he made a documentary about film director Claire Denis, and in 1998 he completed his mid-length feature Open Bodies, which was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Cannes and Clermont-Ferrand, and won the Prix Jean Vigo and the Kodak Award for Best Short Film. In 1999, he directed Cold Lands for Arte as part of their series Gauche-Droite. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival.

In 2000, he directed his first full-length feature, Come Undone, hailed by the critics and released internationally. In 2001, his second full-length feature, a documentary – road movie entitled The Crossing, was selected for the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes. In 2004 he began shooting Wild Side, which went on to be selected for numerous international festivals and won, among other awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award. In 2009 he shot Going South, which was selected for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. Then in 2012, he directed Les Invisibles, a documentary film selected in Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection. The film won the César (French Academy Award) for Best Documentary of 2013. That same year, he completed the documentary Bambi which was presented at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award. In 2014, Sébastien Lifshitz received the «Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.»

Filmography:

  • Casa Susanna (2022)
  • Bambi, une nouvelle femme [Bambi, A French Woman] (2021)
  • Petite Fille [Little Girl] (2020)
  • Avenue de lamballe (2019)
  • Adolescents (2019)
  • Les vies de Thérèse [The Lives of Thérèse] (2016)
  • Bambi (2013)
  • Les invisibles [The Invisibles] (2012)
  • Plein sud [Going South] (2009)
  • Jour et nuit (2008)
  • Les temoins (2006)
  • Wild Side (2004)
  • La traversée [The Crossing] (2001)
  • Presque rien [Come Undone] (2000)
  • Les terres froides [Cold Lands] (1999)
  • Les corps ouverts [Open Bodies] (1998)
  • Claire Denis la vagabonde (1995)
  • Il faut que je l’aime (1994)

Here is a curated selection of links for additional insight/information:

The Lives of Thérèse
May 13th, 2023

The Lives of Thérèse


Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle for Love is Love: Sébastien Lifshitz’s LGBTQ+ Portraits, five films directed by Frenchman Sébastien Lifshitz. Next up is The Lives of Thérèse [Les vies de Thérèse] [2016].


Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Downtown Central Library Auditorium
1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203
(Enter from Clinton Street between Oak and Washington Streets)
716-858-8900 • www.BuffaloLib.org
COVID protocol will be followed.


TrailerSynopsisDirector BioLinks

Synopsis courtesy of The Party Sales:

Thérèse Clerc is one of France’s fiercest activists. From abortion rights to sexual equality to homosexual rights, she has fought every battle. With the knowledge that she is dying from an incurable illness, she decides to give a tender and lucid last look at what was her life, her battles and her loves.

Tidbits:

  • Cannes Film Festival – 2016 – Winner: Queer Palm
  • BFI London Film Festival – 2016
  • Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival – 2017 – Honorable Mention: Best Mid-Length Documentary
Sébastien Lifshitz, © AGAT FILMS & CIE – ARTE France. Courtesy of Music Box Films

“My work centers essentially on the idea of the portrait, that is to pick an individual and try to picture his or her inner landscape – one could almost call it the inner space. And the discontinued narrative helps me to approach it.”

Courtesy of The Lives of Thérèse press kit:

After studying art history, Sébastien Lifshitz began working in the world of contemporary art in 1990, assisting curator Bernard Blistène at the Pompidou Center, and photographer Suzanne Lafont. In 1994, he turned to filmmaking with his first short, Il faut que je l’aime.

In 1995, he made a documentary about film director Claire Denis, and in 1998 he completed his mid-length feature Open Bodies, which was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Cannes and Clermont-Ferrand, and won the Prix Jean Vigo and the Kodak Award for Best Short Film. In 1999, he directed Cold Lands for Arte as part of their series Gauche-Droite. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival.

In 2000, he directed his first full-length feature, Come Undone, hailed by the critics and released internationally. In 2001, his second full-length feature, a documentary – road movie entitled The Crossing, was selected for the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes. In 2004 he began shooting Wild Side, which went on to be selected for numerous international festivals and won, among other awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award. In 2009 he shot Going South, which was selected for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. Then in 2012, he directed Les Invisibles, a documentary film selected in Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection. The film won the César (French Academy Award) for Best Documentary of 2013. That same year, he completed the documentary Bambi which was presented at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award. In 2014, Sébastien Lifshitz received the «Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.»

Filmography:

  • Casa Susanna (2022)
  • Bambi, une nouvelle femme [Bambi, A French Woman] (2021)
  • Petite Fille [Little Girl] (2020)
  • Avenue de lamballe (2019)
  • Adolescents (2019)
  • Les vies de Thérèse [The Lives of Thérèse] (2016)
  • Bambi (2013)
  • Les invisibles [The Invisibles] (2012)
  • Plein sud [Going South] (2009)
  • Jour et nuit (2008)
  • Les temoins (2006)
  • Wild Side (2004)
  • La traversée [The Crossing] (2001)
  • Presque rien [Come Undone] (2000)
  • Les terres froides [Cold Lands] (1999)
  • Les corps ouverts [Open Bodies] (1998)
  • Claire Denis la vagabonde (1995)
  • Il faut que je l’aime (1994)

Here is a curated selection of links for additional insight/information:

Little Girl
May 27th, 2023

Little Girl


Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle for Love is Love: Sébastien Lifshitz’s LGBTQ+ Portraits, five films directed by Frenchman Sébastien Lifshitz. Next up is Little Girl [2020].


Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Downtown Central Library Auditorium
1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203
(Enter from Clinton Street between Oak and Washington Streets)
716-858-8900 • www.BuffaloLib.org
COVID protocol will be followed.


TrailerSynopsisDirector BioLinks

Synopsis courtesy of press kit:

LITTLE GIRL is the moving portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France. Realized with delicacy and intimacy, Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary poetically explores the emotional challenges, everyday feats, and small moments in Sasha’s life.

Out of respect and confidentiality to the family, full names will not be provided in the cast list or photo credits for this documentary. Thank you for honoring the family’s anonymity with any feature and review consideration. We hope that Sasha and her family’s story inspires others to affirm children who are comfortable addressing their gender identity publicly and that they are able to continue living out their beautiful life, uninterrupted.

Tidbits:

  • Berlin International Film Festival – 2020
  • CPH:DOX – 2020
  • European Film Awards – 2020 – Nominee: European Documentary
  • European Film Awards – 2020 – Winner: European Sound Designer
Sébastien Lifshitz, © AGAT FILMS & CIE – ARTE France. Courtesy of Music Box Films

“My work centers essentially on the idea of the portrait, that is to pick an individual and try to picture his or her inner landscape – one could almost call it the inner space. And the discontinued narrative helps me to approach it.”

Courtesy of The Lives of Thérèse press kit:

After studying art history, Sébastien Lifshitz began working in the world of contemporary art in 1990, assisting curator Bernard Blistène at the Pompidou Center, and photographer Suzanne Lafont. In 1994, he turned to filmmaking with his first short, Il faut que je l’aime.

In 1995, he made a documentary about film director Claire Denis, and in 1998 he completed his mid-length feature Open Bodies, which was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Cannes and Clermont-Ferrand, and won the Prix Jean Vigo and the Kodak Award for Best Short Film. In 1999, he directed Cold Lands for Arte as part of their series Gauche-Droite. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival.

In 2000, he directed his first full-length feature, Come Undone, hailed by the critics and released internationally. In 2001, his second full-length feature, a documentary – road movie entitled The Crossing, was selected for the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes. In 2004 he began shooting Wild Side, which went on to be selected for numerous international festivals and won, among other awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award. In 2009 he shot Going South, which was selected for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. Then in 2012, he directed Les Invisibles, a documentary film selected in Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection. The film won the César (French Academy Award) for Best Documentary of 2013. That same year, he completed the documentary Bambi which was presented at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award. In 2014, Sébastien Lifshitz received the «Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.»

Filmography:

  • Casa Susanna (2022)
  • Bambi, une nouvelle femme [Bambi, A French Woman] (2021)
  • Petite Fille [Little Girl] (2020)
  • Avenue de lamballe (2019)
  • Adolescents (2019)
  • Les vies de Thérèse [The Lives of Thérèse] (2016)
  • Bambi (2013)
  • Les invisibles [The Invisibles] (2012)
  • Plein sud [Going South] (2009)
  • Jour et nuit (2008)
  • Les temoins (2006)
  • Wild Side (2004)
  • La traversée [The Crossing] (2001)
  • Presque rien [Come Undone] (2000)
  • Les terres froides [Cold Lands] (1999)
  • Les corps ouverts [Open Bodies] (1998)
  • Claire Denis la vagabonde (1995)
  • Il faut que je l’aime (1994)

Here is a curated selection of links for additional insight/information:

Casa Susanna
June 10th, 2023

Casa Susanna


Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle for Love is Love: Sébastien Lifshitz’s LGBTQ+ Portraits, five films directed by Frenchman Sébastien Lifshitz. Last up is Casa Susanna [2022].


Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Downtown Central Library Auditorium
1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203
(Enter from Clinton Street between Oak and Washington Streets)
716-858-8900 • www.BuffaloLib.org
COVID protocol will be followed.


TrailerSynopsisDirector’s StatementDirector BioLinks

Synopsis courtesy of press kit:

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 place for them to express their true selves and live for a few days as they had always dreamed—dressed as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized for their self-expression. Told through the memories of those whose visits to the house would change their lives, the film provides a moving look back at a secret world where the persecuted and frightened found freedom, acceptance and, often, the courage to live their lives out of the shadows. A co-production with ARTE, CASA SUSANNA is directed by the critically acclaimed French filmmaker Sebastien Lifshitz.

Using a rich trove of color photos of Casa Susanna’s guests, archival footage and personal remembrances, the film reconstructs the forgotten life of Susanna Valenti, the courageous woman who ran the house. From her enlistment in the army as a man to her marriage to Marie, an eccentric older Italian woman, Susanna led a life that, even today, many would find hard to imagine. Like Susanna, many who came to the Catskills house were married and fathers, working as airplane pilots, tugboat captains, film directors and authors. They found each other and Casa Susanna through word-of-mouth and Transvestia, a magazine for and by the trans and cross-dressing community. In the film, two people whose lives were forever changed at Casa Susanna, Diane and Kate, travel back to the now-abandoned site and share their memories of a time when people like them, from all over the country, came to a place where they were free to dress and live as women from morning to night.

Tidbits:

  • Venice Film Festival – 2022 – Venice Days
  • Toronto International Film Festival – 2022
  • CPH:DOX – 2023
  • BFI London Film Festival – 2022
  • DOC NYC – 2022

Courtesy of press kit:

In the early 2000s, while writing WILD SIDE, a movie about a transgender person, I plunged into Paris’ underground scene. Over the months, I met a host of transgender women. The chaotic nature of their life stories came across as a terrible reflection of the way society had rejected and misunderstood them. Meeting these women convinced me that I had a duty to depict their lives, so trans identity might be better understood and accepted.

While researching WILD SIDE, I stumbled on a book mysteriously entitled Casa Susanna. To my surprise, I discovered this contained a collection of images depicting a US-based trans and cross-dressing community of the 1950s and ‘60s. The most striking thing was that they did not seem to be in costume. Quite the opposite: you could tell that they were carefully, sensitively, intent on embodying elegant, upper-middle-class American womanhood, a woman next door as Life Magazine or Harper’s Bazaar might have wanted us to see her. There was no accompanying text, just a short preface explaining that these pictures had been found by an antique-dealer couple at a flea market in New York City. There was nothing on the back of the pictures either and no correspondence to support provenance or history. The only words that did appear in one of the pictures was a wooden sign on a tree trunk that read Casa Susanna. Beside the tree stood a tall, long-haired brunette in a flower-print dress. It was summer. The weather was very sunny. This, people felt, must be Susanna, proudly standing outside what must be her own house.

Years passed. I made WILD SIDE, then a film portrait of Bambi, one of the first transgender women in France, and most recently PETITE FILLE ( Little Girl ), a documentary about Sasha, a seven-year-old trans girl. All three movies relate to trans identity in different eras. Together they make up a history of sorts from the 1940s to the present in France.

Then in 2016, I was offered the opportunity to organize a vast photographic exhibit, showing images from my own collection. This was Mauvais Genre ( Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross Dressers ). The show contained more than 500 amateur photographs depicting various forms of cross-dressing from the 19th century to the 1980s. As a result, I met Isabelle Bonnet, a photographic historian who had written a paper on the Casa Susanna pictures. Sheer grit had enabled Isabelle to identify and meet with some of the people shown in these mysterious photographs and to discover the true identity of Susanna herself.

When I read Isabelle’s paper, the mass of archival material found, and the discovery of surviving eyewitnesses convinced me I had to make a movie. So I went to New York in the late summer of 2021 and traveled up to the Catskills in search of Casa Susanna. I have been lucky enough to be able to bring this secret history, this invisible world, back to life with the help of Kate, Diana, Betsy and Gregory. Now their story, the story of a clandestine community, is there for all to see. With it, a fragment of queer history, stretching from the McCarthy era to the 1970s, is revealed. The unsettled nature of their existences and their bravery ring loud and clear. But now a new conservatism is rearing its head again and the rights of yesteryear, fiercely won, may yet again be challenged. The struggle isn’t over.

Sébastien Lifshitz, © AGAT FILMS & CIE – ARTE France. Courtesy of Music Box Films

“My work centers essentially on the idea of the portrait, that is to pick an individual and try to picture his or her inner landscape – one could almost call it the inner space. And the discontinued narrative helps me to approach it.”

Courtesy of The Lives of Thérèse press kit:

After studying art history, Sébastien Lifshitz began working in the world of contemporary art in 1990, assisting curator Bernard Blistène at the Pompidou Center, and photographer Suzanne Lafont. In 1994, he turned to filmmaking with his first short, Il faut que je l’aime.

In 1995, he made a documentary about film director Claire Denis, and in 1998 he completed his mid-length feature Open Bodies, which was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Cannes and Clermont-Ferrand, and won the Prix Jean Vigo and the Kodak Award for Best Short Film. In 1999, he directed Cold Lands for Arte as part of their series Gauche-Droite. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival.

In 2000, he directed his first full-length feature, Come Undone, hailed by the critics and released internationally. In 2001, his second full-length feature, a documentary – road movie entitled The Crossing, was selected for the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes. In 2004 he began shooting Wild Side, which went on to be selected for numerous international festivals and won, among other awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award. In 2009 he shot Going South, which was selected for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. Then in 2012, he directed Les Invisibles, a documentary film selected in Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection. The film won the César (French Academy Award) for Best Documentary of 2013. That same year, he completed the documentary Bambi which was presented at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award. In 2014, Sébastien Lifshitz received the «Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.»

Filmography:

  • Casa Susanna (2022)
  • Bambi, une nouvelle femme [Bambi, A French Woman] (2021)
  • Petite Fille [Little Girl] (2020)
  • Avenue de lamballe (2019)
  • Adolescents (2019)
  • Les vies de Thérèse [The Lives of Thérèse] (2016)
  • Bambi (2013)
  • Les invisibles [The Invisibles] (2012)
  • Plein sud [Going South] (2009)
  • Jour et nuit (2008)
  • Les temoins (2006)
  • Wild Side (2004)
  • La traversée [The Crossing] (2001)
  • Presque rien [Come Undone] (2000)
  • Les terres froides [Cold Lands] (1999)
  • Les corps ouverts [Open Bodies] (1998)
  • Claire Denis la vagabonde (1995)
  • Il faut que je l’aime (1994)

Here is a curated selection of links for additional insight/information: