Short Film Goes Behind the Wheel with Female Cab Drivers
LatestDiana Diroy’s ten minute film, What’s A Girl Doing Here? goes behind the wheel with female cab drivers in New York City. There are 46,000 taxis in the city, and a mere 170 of them are driven by women. One driver, Elena Tenchikova, divulges that she once had a little girl in her cab who asked her mother, “What’s a girl doing here?” The mother explained that Tenchikova as driving the taxi; the little girl argued, “but boys drive cabs.” Tenchikova is a full-time student who drives three or four days a week — but the shifts are so long, a mere three days of work amounts to almost 40 hours of work. Meanwhile, she’s getting a masters degree in urban policy and administration. Another driver, Shonna Valeska, is a photographer who finds driving a cab to be a “real learning experience.”