Roel Swierenga is the founder of the Hansa Green Tour Foundation in The Netherlands (showcasing sustainable solutions), documentary filmmaker, organizer of sustainability events, study trips & trade delegations, and speaker at conferences. As director of the annual Hansa Green Tour event in Europe, an epic road trip with electric and alternative energy vehicles through Northern Europe, he decided to have these inspiring sustainability road trips documented and filmed from the very beginning in 2011 for personal use and to share with all partners and participants.
Over the years these video documentaries have become more professional and nowadays Hansa Green Tour organizes re-union events where these documentaries are proudly presented to participants, partners and sponsors. As event director however Roel Swierenga was mostly guiding the camera crew, busy behind the scenes but not behind the camera himself. Due to the covid pandemic and all events & traveling being cancelled, Roel Swierenga started to train himself in mobile filmmaking, editing and drone flying skills.
In 2021 he started to make a first series of short films, to gain experience and learn the art of mobile filmmaking with smartphones, smartphone lenses and drones. With the ambition to grow as a filmmaker and make impactful productions.
The short film PUSHBACK is his first time entry as a filmmaker in the world of film festivals in 2021 and received multiple awards. Honored, proud and strengthened in his believe that film is a great way to tell stories with impact he made a second successful entry with his second film 48.000 Names in August 2022 and again winning many awards. September 2023 he launched his 3rd documentary film Before the Oil with immediate success winning best short documentary awards at film festivals in LA, New York, Stockholm and best environment educational film award in Helsinki. This is film is currently running in the film festivals circuit.
New short documentary projects are scheduled in Scandinavia in 2024.
Still so much to learn and so many stories to tell, looking forward to making new productions and where film will bring us!