Tribeca: “New York Day Women” is an Ode to Mothers as We May Never Know Them
Perhaps more than any other city, New York has a quality that is ephemeral. Something about the city makes a day seem fleeting. As though the possibilities of what could unfold over the course of twenty-four hours are endless. Premiering as part of the Shorts: NY Off Peak shorts program at this year’s Tribeca, Fredgy Noël’s New York Day Women is as much of a love letter to the city it takes place in as it is to the women who inhabit these streets.
Suzette (Natalie Paul) is a young professional, minding her business at a coffee cart. Her coworker (Sara Kapner) is talking to her about the pros and cons of her polyamorous lifestyle, but Suzette isn’t paying attention. She has caught a glimpse of her mother (Kathleen Turrene) walking down the city street without a care in the world. Suzette sees this as an opportunity to understand her mother in a way she never could have dreamed, so Suzette spends the day following her mom. From afar, Suzette sees her mother in a new light.
courtesy of Tribeca
New York Day Women is the classic New York story, centered around coffee and chance encounters. It’s the feeling of possibility that makes the city so intoxicating and freeing. Suzette gets to see a woman who looks like her mother, but acts in a way she’s never seen before. Who are our parents when they’re on their own? What is their identity outside of parenthood? Perhaps the cruelest twist of fate is that parents will never truly know their children and children will never truly know their parents. So bound together by blood and proximity, yet so far apart emotionally.
How is a day spent? What do we all do with our 24 hours? Of all the streets in the whole city, Suzette finds her path crossing with her mother. Sure, Suzette lives with her mom, but the mother she knows inside the home is different from the one who buys hot dogs from a cart. The nagging-about-grandkids mother is swapped for a woman shopping for dresses, being a nanny, and wandering around enjoying her solitude. “Today,” Suzette says. “I met Josephine.” It’s a powerful moment. New York Day Women is for the child in all of us who longs to understand our parents, knowing that the goal, however impossible, is essential to learning where you come from.
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