Roel Nollet is a journalist and documentary maker based in Antwerp, Belgium.

Driven, independent and stubborn. Constantly puzzling and connecting pieces into ‘not just another’ breaking news item or documentary. Eyes opened wide. Shoots his own material. Edits it too. Loves to do that. Former president of the local youth movement. Plays the saxophone, the guitar and the drums. Loves the adrenaline of rock climbing and running and the rush for the deadline. Got to have the thrills. Mind full of adequate nonsense. Eager to create. Storyteller. Most likely in good company. Does the trick with a camera too. Studied Philosophy. Wrote a thesis about ‘Desire for the Uncontrollable’, concerning Nietzsche, Freud and Hume. Took a postgraduating year in journalism and goes out every day since to do reporting work for television. Worked also as a mentor for asylum seekers in a center owned by the Red Cross. Socially committed. Believes in Climate Change. Act Now Please. Had his work broadcasted on CANVAS, VRT, VTM, TV OOST, TVL, AVS, ATV, FOCUS-WTV, ABS-CBN (Philippines), ARTE (France), FRANCE2, 5TV (Russia), TVN24 (Poland), CBC (Canada) AL ARABIYA and AL JAZEERA, theaters in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Albania, the Philippines, South Korea, Palestine, Israel, Canada and the US.

Roel founded the REDHORSE Collective in 2009, when he returned from shooting a documentary about political killings and disappearances in the Philippines, called TAXI FILIPPINO. This documentary was nominated for the ‘Concentra Award’, an international Award for ‘Outstanding videojournalism’.

As ‘CHIEF REDHORSE‘, Roel is constantly looking for new and inspiring cooperations with fellow documentary makers, photographers and journalists.

Roel Nollet

Info

Name
Roel Nollet
Title
Journalist and documentary maker
Expertise
Human Rights, Conflict, Development and Social Issues
Country
Belgium
City
Antwerp
LinkedIn

Supported projects

Northern Lights, at the end of the tunnel

  • Migration

REYKJAVIK - "No one will end up on the streets," Thorir Hall says decidedly. He works for the Red Cross. "In Iceland, sleeping on the streets is not an option." It is a beautiful day today. Outside, it is freezing at minus four. In central Reykjavik, the aid agency has just opened a new emergency shelter. Last year, some 4,000 refugees applied for asylum in the country. It seems a ridiculously small number when compared to countries like Greece, Lebanon or even Belgium, but for Iceland it is 70 times more than a decade ago.

De guys from Vila Cruzeiro

  • Youth
  • Justice
  • Organised crime

RIO DE JANEIRO - Vila Cruzeiro is one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous slums. People are living in poverty surrounded by a drug war. After far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office, shootings between police and traffickers are much more frequent. Violence in the neighbourhoods is only increasing.

Voetvolk

  • Armed conflict

STEPANAKERT - Nearly 30 years after Nagorno-Karabakh's declaration of independence, the region's simmering conflicts have flared up again. Nagorno-Karabakh is a country that does not officially exist. Still, it is fought over hard. Journalists Roel Nollet and Marijn Sillis travel to the Southern Caucasus, an ancient crossroads of cultures where the unrecognized states are a stone's throw from each other.

A Girl's Gaze

  • Equality
  • Environment

LILONGWE - Malawi is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. Major floods and extreme drought mean that the harvest fails year after year. Girls are then easy prey for human traffickers.

Rebuilding Raqqah

  • Armed conflict
  • Terrorism

AR-RAQQAH - "Bomb after bomb after bomb." Dima is peeling potatoes in the kitchen when rockets are fired at her house. She loses a leg and two fingers. There are 7 dead. All citizens.

Inocencia asesinada

  • Armed conflict
  • Healthcare
  • Religion

EL SALVADOR - "When I woke up in the hospital, there were police officers around me. They said that I had killed my child." Maria Teresa De Rivera is 34 when she gets a miscarriage on the toilet. Due to strict abortion laws in her country, she is sentenced to 40 years in prison. She not only loses a child, but also her freedom. Under pressure from, among others, the Catholic Church, El Salvador has one of the strictest abortion laws in the world.

Puerta sin colores

  • Armed conflict
  • Human Rights
  • Politics

CARACAS - In "Puerta sin Colores", Marianne Cap, together with reporter Roel Nollet, goes to Venezuela. She worked there for a while in a home for boys with a difficult home situation. Four years later, she returns. 

Yovo Bonsoir

  • Culture
  • Work

PORTO-NOVO - Yovo Bonsoir breaks the clichés about Africa. The white volunteer travelling in the West African country of Benin is the guide. With the help of local colleagues, three young Flemish journalists investigate the true nature of "voluntourism", a popular holiday trend that combines tourism and volunteer work.

Worthy of the Crown

  • Culture
  • Migration

OKEIGBO - Yemi Oduwale, a Flemish boy born in '86, has a Belgian mother and a Nigerian father. His grandfather is ill and wants Yemi to succeed him as 'chief' in Nigeria. But Yemi was born and raised in Europe and doesn't know anything about the culture of the Yoruba, one of the largest tribes in West Africa. What's more, it's been more than 15 years since he last visited Nigeria.