Renée Scheltema

Renée Scheltema (born 1951) is a Dutch documentary filmmaker, temporarily living with her family in Cape Town, South Africa. She has been making documentaries for 25 years.

After her "Doctorandus" degree in Criminology in 1974, she received a “Tuition fee Waiver” for the School of Journalism at the University of California in Berkeley. Her main subjects were TV-Journalism and Photo-Journalism.

In 1978, she proceeded to work for Dutch television as a Director for the "NOS" International Affairs Programme. She was also Assistant Director for two Dutch feature movies. Thereafter she became a freelance documentary filmmaker, working mainly for Dutch TV stations, like the NOS, NCRV, AVRO, Humanistic TV, TROS, VERONICA, IKON, and VPRO. Many documentaries were co-productions with TV and the Dutch Non-governmental organization SNV, focusing on development and the protection of the environment. She has been director, producer, and also done camerawork.

Her art-series “Canvas Extreme”, of 7 x 30' minute portraits of contemporary cutting edge artists in South Africa, was sold to TV stations in France, Spain, Mexico, Switzerland, and Holland.

In the past few years she filmed for the Dutch Buddhist Broadcasting station BOS-TV documentaries like: "Happy in Zimbabwe?"; "Portrait of a Zen couple"; "Een gezelig gesprek", portrait of Nicolaas Pierson.

Renée is currently working on a spiritual film, workingtitle: "Soul Safari".

Film-Festivals

*Asolo Filmfestval in 2001: “Hush”, a portrait of artist Tracy Payne".
*International Festival for Woman Films (Paris)2000: “Hush”, a portrait of artist Tracy Payne".
*Donostia (Spain): “Seven Days in Burma” a co-production with TV and UNDP and UNESCO ;
*Monte Carlo: “The Death Penalty”, a coproduction with TV and Amnesty International;
*WSSD filmfestival Joh-burg,2002: “The Bus”, with WWF-Table Mountain Fund and the Nat. Botanical Gardens in South Africa
*European TV Festival of Rel.Progr.Norway:"A Zen couple in the Western Cape"

Photography

Renée is also a professional stills-photographer, and has been working for magazines and newspapers in Holland, the USA, and South Africa. She was a member of Gamma Liaison in New York (now called Getty Images).Exhibition: "More than Clogs and Tulips", exhibition of unique collection of photographic prints of Theo Van Gogh.2008. Cape Town. Presented by the Dutch Consulate.

Degrees

*Bachelor of Law. University of Leiden. Netherlands
*Drs. Criminology. University of Leiden. Netherlands
*M.A. School of Journalism. University of California. Berkeley.