what is your story?

tjalina nijholt media productions

HUMAN INTEREST

Video Portraits

TV REPORTER

For national news

DOCUMENTARIES

Worldwide

EXTRA SKILLS:

Social Media,

Voice-over, Events

"I want to help tell stories of people who often don’t have a voice"

About tjalina

What: Independent international filmmaker.

Focused on human-interest stories and NGO’s.

Tjalina is producer and reporter for national news in the Netherlands. She is used to interview, film and edit news and human stories under high pressure.

“I am passionate and dedicated to my job since I’m 13 years old. As a TV reporter I specialized in human stories, charity organizations and NGO’s.

After filming refugees and people in oppressed situations in Malawi, Kenya and Greece, my aim is to help tell stories of people who often don’t have a voice”.

Tjalina works as a single-man crew, or together with other cameramen, producers and editors.

Next to her own media company, she is founder of the company Olgaria Beads, selling jewellery made by Masai women from Kenya, providing an alternative income to support the women’s families and local communities in Kenya.

“I am super excited to hear your stories, and always open for new adventures and opportunities. You want to talk or share ideas? Look forward getting in touch! “tjalinanijholt@gmail.com”

Experience:

Her social attitude, open mind and flexibility has brought her many adventures all over the world.

Human Interest Portraits in Africa

Since 2017, Tjalina has traveled and worked in 12 African countries: Malawi, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South-Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Botswana and Namibia.

In 2022 and 2024, she has filmed for NGOs like Foundation Move-Up and SHOFCO in Kenya, showing their work and how this impacts their communities. She also started a crowdfunding to successfully distribute 350 menstrual cups in the slums of Nairobi.

Until January 2022, Tjalina has worked and lived in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania for five months. Here she produced, filmed and edited six video portraits/small documentaries of partners of travel agent Charlie’s Travels. She stayed in their houses for 2-5 days, experiencing their local life, in order to create an in-depth video about their lives, work, families and ambitions.

International documentary in Malawi

In collaboration with Unicef, Anne Frank Stichting Basel and DocEye Amsterdam, she interviewed children living in oppressed circumstances like refugee camps, teen pregnancy or poverty.

Human Stories in Greece

At the refugee camps on Lesbos she filmed the work of NGO Movement on the Ground and many personal and emotional portraits of refugees.

Eurovision Songfestival

In 2022, she worked as Backstage Assistant for the Eurovision Song festival, guiding the artists and delegations of Italy, Portugal and Albania during their performances.

Documentary in Senegal

After learning French, she independently filmed a documentary about Sustainable Farming in a village in Senegal.

Tjalina

x Travels Africa

Tjalina has a big passion for living and working in Africa and was lucky to film documentaries and human stories in the last years in her favorite continent.

Experience:

In 2017 she learned French and worked and lived in Senegal where she shot a documentary on sustainable farming.

In 2019 she worked on a documentary in Malawi, together with Unicef and DocEye Amsterdam.

From 1st of October 2021 until January 2022 she traveled and worked independently in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to shoot stories that were worth to tell for travel company Charlie’s Travels.

In January–March 2023 she traveled and filmed in South-Africa, Eswatini and Lushoto (during a road trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town).

In November–December 2023 she traveled and filmed in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

In July 2024 she traveled and filmed in Kenya.

One of the side-projects of her is Humans of Africa, a collection of portraits in exchange of gifting photos to the portrayed.

“When I travelled through Africa I soon realized that many people have no photographs of themselves and their family. While that can be such an precious memory, especially when you lose a family member.

So Humans of Africa aims to take photos of people, give their story a voice in video and text, and print out the photos as a memory”.

Testimonials

Tjalina Nijholt has volunteered for The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 as a Backstage Assistant. A Backstage Assistant has a key role in the smooth running of the production. They assist and guide the performing artists and the Delegation members at the venue. They need to be calm, efficient and organized with good communication skills. They need to have professional manner and be a great timekeeper. Tjalina has showed an excellent attitude to her work, has been a popular member of our team, and contributed to our success. We would like to wish Tjalina all success in her future endeavors.

Working with Tjalina is a real pleasure. Her work ethic is excellent. She is passionate, knowledgeable and eager to learn. She is also very creative and solution-oriented. Tjalina always knows how to make something beautiful out of it, even with limited resources. She is great to be around. She is open-minded and sees things from different perspectives. Her positivity and enthusiasm work very infectious. When things go wrong, Tjalina always knows how to inspire you so that you have motivation to keep going. It does not surprise me that she is now going to Africa to shoot documentaries. On the contrary, it would almost be surprising if she doesn't take this opportunity. Her heart is there. I know her as a real people- person. She prefers to meet new people and discover other cultures every day.

I worked with Tjalina when she was a reporter for TV, radio and online for the city broadcaster of The Hague: Den Haag FM. Her tasks were: creating and producing news topics, interviewing and filming on location and editing for TV and radio. Her work attitude is pro-active: she always had a whole list of ideas that she wanted to work with. Her personality is pleasant: she is sympathetic, enthusiastic and eager to learn. Good qualities for a young journalist. I would recommend working with her, because she is professional, has a nose for beautiful stories and is full of enthusiasm.

During my time at Den Haag FM I have experienced Tjalina Nijholt as a very nice colleague. A friendly, social and thoughtful person who was a true addition to the broadcaster. She is not only independently but also a team player. Besides the fact that you can always count on her, Tjalina knows how to think outside the box like a professional, resulting in stories with special perspectives. She not only produced and shot news videos, reports, portraits and major productions for us, but she also managed to independently create stories beyond the borders, including stories on Lesbos. This creative centipede always delivers.

portfolio

Play

portraits

Every person has a story to tell. Tjalina’s aim is to share thoughts, dreams, hopes and fears in a personal and creative way.

documentaries

The upcoming years Tjalina wants to specialize in making documentaries.

After documentaries in Senegal and Malawi, she is ready to take the next step.

reporting

Tjalina has been reporting news-stories on national and regional level in the Netherlands and abroad. This has been both on and off camera.

extra skills

Next to interviewing, filming and editing, she also knows her ways in organizing events like Eurovision Songfestival, presenting, creating social media content, hosting and voice-overs.