Filmmaker Statement

While working as an Educator at the Tenement Museum, I had the opportunity to watch my co-workers don a wig and an accent to become a 14-year-old Sephardic immigrant in 1916 named Victoria Confino. These performers delivered a daily masterclass in historic interpretation and empathetic performance. My friends were damn good at their jobs. When we were all laid off during the pandemic, I noticed that the Vickies mourned more than just the loss of paycheck. They felt the grief of losing a connection to a long-dead woman they never met and a once-in-a-lifetime connection to each other. Simultaneously, I saw them wrestle with the love they had for their work while understanding the ways in which they were undervalued by the museum that gave them the opportunity to do that work. Through this film, the Vickies get one last opportunity to tell a story of identity, labor, and community on the Lower East Side... this time, it's their own.