Valerie Kontakos

Movies

Queen of the Deuce
Producer
Chelly Wilson was a Christmas-celebrating Jewish grandma, a lesbian who married men, and a proud owner of porn theaters in 1970s NYC. Through audio recordings, Chelly recounts her pre-war escape from Greece up through her unlikely motherhood and rise to wealth as a shrewd businesswoman on “The Deuce,” aka New York’s infamous 42nd Street. Fascinating WWII and NYC archival footage illustrate this entertaining story of a family and its matriarch, a truly unique character with chutzpah in spades
Queen of the Deuce
Executive Producer
Chelly Wilson was a Christmas-celebrating Jewish grandma, a lesbian who married men, and a proud owner of porn theaters in 1970s NYC. Through audio recordings, Chelly recounts her pre-war escape from Greece up through her unlikely motherhood and rise to wealth as a shrewd businesswoman on “The Deuce,” aka New York’s infamous 42nd Street. Fascinating WWII and NYC archival footage illustrate this entertaining story of a family and its matriarch, a truly unique character with chutzpah in spades
Queen of the Deuce
Director
Chelly Wilson was a Christmas-celebrating Jewish grandma, a lesbian who married men, and a proud owner of porn theaters in 1970s NYC. Through audio recordings, Chelly recounts her pre-war escape from Greece up through her unlikely motherhood and rise to wealth as a shrewd businesswoman on “The Deuce,” aka New York’s infamous 42nd Street. Fascinating WWII and NYC archival footage illustrate this entertaining story of a family and its matriarch, a truly unique character with chutzpah in spades
The Last Partisan
Producer
An integral part of Greek folklore, Manolis Glezos is best known as the man who tore the swastika flag from the Acropolis during the Nazi invasion in 1941. Since then he has lived a mercurial existence; often caught between moments of glory and controversy as he continued to battle for his ideals. With the country knee-deep in a crushing financial crisis, Glezos is back in the limelight, elected as the oldest member of the European Parliament in 2014, at the age of 92. Yet he won't even discuss "the flag incident" refusing to be pigeonholed as a one-hit-wonder. Scolding, lecturing and joking along the way, he develops a tug-of-war relationship with the filmmakers, as they uncover the man behind the myth.
Mana
Director
In 1962, a group of young women made headlines in Greece by running away to join a convent. Uninterested in praying all day, they started a shelter for abandoned and abused children. 50 years later, they are still raising infants without a wedding band, without help from church or state.
Volta
Producer
A mother and daughter start out from downtown Athens and head to the northern suburbs of the city. Nina thinks she's going on a walk.
Loose Corner
Post Production Supervisor
Mysterious cinematographic events unfold in a very neat little space, like a theatre. A ball gets bigger and bigger and then suddenly disappears: there’s a dog a good head or two taller than a child; a young woman miniscule one second is huge the next… We don’t get it, but just enjoy taking part in a phantasmagorical experience like an audience in the early days of cinema, with filmmakers that have made an illusion out of this art.
Loose Corner
Sound Editor
Mysterious cinematographic events unfold in a very neat little space, like a theatre. A ball gets bigger and bigger and then suddenly disappears: there’s a dog a good head or two taller than a child; a young woman miniscule one second is huge the next… We don’t get it, but just enjoy taking part in a phantasmagorical experience like an audience in the early days of cinema, with filmmakers that have made an illusion out of this art.