Renée Scheltema

Who is Renée Scheltema?

Renée Scheltema is a Dutch documentary filmmaker, living in Cape Town, South Africa. She has been making documentaries for 25 years.

After her Bachelors at Law, and Doctorandus degree in Criminology in 1974, she received her Masters at the School of Journalism at the University of California in Berkeley. Her main subjects were TV journalism and photojournalism.

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, Human TV, TROS, Veronica, IKON, VPRO, and the BOS, Buddhist Broadcasting Station.

Many documentaries were co-productions with TV and the Dutch Non-governmental organization SNV, focusing on sustainable development and the protection of the environment. She has been director, producer, cameraperson and editor.

Her art series "Canvas Extreme" consists of seven 30-minute portraits of contemporary cutting-edge artists in South Africa, and was sold to TV stations in France, Spain, Mexico, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.