Renée Scheltema

Renée Scheltema is a Dutch documentary filmmaker and photographer, living in Cape Town, South Africa. She has been making documentaries for 35 years. After her Bachelor of Law and Doctorandus degree in Criminology, 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 2019, the new updated version of Normal Is Over The Movie 1.1 was completed, as the message of this independent award-winning documentary is 'becoming more relevant'. Normal Is Over has its focus on humanity's wisest response to climate change, species extinction, resource depletion, income inequality, and the link between these issues. This independent film investigates the financial and economic paradigm underlying planetary problems.Funding for the updated version has been provided by The New Normal Foundation.In August 2015, after 4 years of working as a one-woman film-crew, Scheltema completed the previous 120-minute feature version of the film Normal Is Over The Movie 1.1, which was self-financed.

Normal is Over received the Grand Educational Award, Cine Eco Film Festival, Best in Show Award, Cinema Verde Film Festival, and the Honorable Mention Award, Tasmanian Eco Film Festival. It was selected to screen at 13 film festivals, like the Wild & Scenic Film Festival USA, Princeton International Film Festival, The Santa Cruz Film Festival, Environmental Film Festival Spain, Greenmotions Film Fest, in Germany, South African Eco Film Festival, and Sonoma International Film Festival, USA.

For many years, Scheltema worked for Dutch television as a documentary film director, producer, camera person and editor: NOS International Affairs Programme, NCRV, AVRO, Human TV, TROS, Veronica, IKON, VPRO, and BOS, Buddhist Broadcasting Station.

Many documentaries were co-produced with TV and non-governmental organizations such as SNV, UNDP, UNESCO, and Amnesty International. Scheltema has always focused on social issues, sustainable development, art and the protection of the environment.

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

Other documentaries include Happy in Zimbabwe?, Portrait of a Zen couple, and Een Gezelig Gesprek, and Portrait of Nicolaas Pierson.

Scheltema's 2009 award-winning feature documentary Something Unknown Is Doing We Don't Know What investigates the science behind psychic experiences, featuring top scientists in the US, such as Prof. Charles Tart, Dr. Dean Radin, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, and Hal Puthoff. This film has been selected at many film festivals, and has been distributed worldwide. Scheltema also wrote a book called Something Unknown, which is available on Amazon. The book has been translated into Dutch and is called "Iets Bekends Doet Iets Onverwachts".