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I met Samantha & Françoise at Peeping Tom’s last screening with only a very vague idea of what they actually do but it struck me that this was a perfect opportunity to put into practice the Coffeebreak interview that had been swimming about in my mind. It seems that there are so many subsidiary areas of the industry that need to be represented in this way as much as the front end members like directors, producers etc. Samantha and Françoise play such an important role in promoting young talent internationally that a separate interview forum had to come about. In the future I hope to have covered the entire back end of the industry from gaffers and grips to location scouts. I’ve a lot of work to do!
Tom Fogg
Site Editor

COMPANY: Valis
FIELD: Music & Film Festival Organisers
INTERVIEW LOCATION: Bar Italia - Soho
INTERVIEWEES: Françoise Lamy, Samantha Fougeras Lavergnolle
BORN: Françoise Lamy - Paris Samantha Fougeras Lavergnolle - London
EDUCATED: Françoise - La Sorbonne (Foreign Civilisation, English & American Literature) Samantha - Faculté St Denis (Fine Art, Cinema Audiovisuel)

What prompted your moves into film?
Samantha - I made a few films at University and when I came over to London I got involved with the Portobello film festival, I was there for two years until 98/99 and since then I've been organising one off events.Françoise - Same question? Actually my position is more to do with music which was one of the main reasons I moved to London. I worked as an assistant studio manager of an RSL (restricted service license) radio station and then I went to work at Peeping Tom’s which is how I got involved in film.

What are you both doing now?
S. - We are organising events linked with our Paris events, Valis has a Paris connection, a French Connection! At the moment we are organising a film night on the 25th of February called Transmission at DIY PLC on Commercial St in London but mainly we are trying to coordinate our London and Paris events.F. - Yes, and we have a new venue in Paris, the Lighthouse Boat on La Seine for an event on the 18th of February to promote the electronic and digital film and music culture, something we plan to do in London.

Where is this Lighthouse Boat?
S. - Its on the east end of the Seine opposite the National Library, its a big bright red thing you can’t miss it!

What are your plans for the future?
F. - Well, we’ve just started working on a website for Valis to let people in London know what we are doing in Paris and vice versa. We’ll compile a detailed program of the films we are showing and the artists’ work. We also have a very exciting festival in the pipeline based in the French Alps ski resort of Tignes.S. - Apparently there is a Eurostar link from London but Snowtronix is a festival of electronic music like a formal rave. There’ll be shorts screened, live bands, digitised music like House and Techno which hasn’t got a good reputation in France but Valis is doing a lot to change that!

Will you spread to other countries in Europe?
F. - Well it took 6 years to set up the London - Paris connection!S. - Now its to do with sponsorship, to get European funds you need to be involved with more than two European countries. So we’ll have to.F. - And we’d like to keep linking up with other like-minded people but we are not in any rush.

Do you plan to move back to France?
F. - Well I am really working there part time with Valis France anyway.Samantha?
S. - Not if I can help it!