SAMI TOO was launched in 2022 by a 82 year-old Frenchman, Pierre MARC, who lived with semi-nomadic reindeer herders of Finnmark, in the far north of Norway. This took place in the late of 1950s, during Pierre's ethnographic studies, when the Sami didn't yet know snowmobiles, leading a life perfectly in symbiosis whith their reindeer and environment.
Pierre published books on the Sami in France. His novel Le défi des rennes (The reindeer challenge) already foreshadows the spirit of SAMI TOO as its action takes place during the rebellion of the Sami of Norway in the 1970s-1980s, which gave birth to their current status and situation.
He is as well co-author with the Swiss filmmaker Omar Agustoni of the documentary Spring of the reindeer (Jump Cut Production/RTS) broadcasted on Swiss television since 2016, as well as on Arte, TV5 Monde and worldwide.
" My adoption into reindeer-herding families on the Finnmark plateau was a school of life for me. I left the Parisian pavements, with their anonymous crowds, to discover in the middle of the tundra endearing men and women, living very comfortably in a harsh environment, and whom I have never forgotten. We must protect them, they are the last representatives of the reindeer civilization in Europe. They have a sense of nature and a capacity to adapt to climatic hazards that could be useful to us all. Like other First Peoples, they are part of the heritage of humanity ."
(Pierre Marc)