Valerie Kontakos A native New Yorker, Valerie Kontakos has been living between Athens and New York since 2003. After graduating from NYU, she worked as a sound editor for the Maysles brothers, Deborah Dickson & Anita Thacher. In 1989 she directed her first feature documentary A Quality of Light. In 1994 she became the deputy director of the Hellenic Foundation in NYC, where she started the NYC Greek Film Festival and curated a monthly program for the American Museum of the Moving Image. She founded Exile Films in Athens in 2007 and has been operating the non-profit Exile Room, focusing on social outreach through documentaries, since 2009. She’s on the Board of Directors of the Greek Cinematheque. Queen of the Deuce is her fourth feature.