2021 was a year where, coincidentally, not just one but two documentaries were made about the Dutch phenomenon from the 90's, Jomanda. One was made by Ewout Genemans for RTL/Videoland, and this one was produced for Discovery Plus.
One thing I do like about this series in particular, is the addition of Tineke de Nooij and her journey to Canada to find and visit Joke Damman (Jomanda). She makes the story complete, as her work with Jomanda in the past, as well as her still strong (but in no way forcing) belief in Jomanda, her soothing and warm personality gives the documentary series a nice feeling of urgency, and also makes the story come full circle. I'd like to compliment the research done on both the amount of people interviewed (those who still support Jomanda after all these years and those opposed to her), as well as the used footage (newsreports, appearances in programs from that era), coming from both public network-sources as from the commercial networks. However, a side note has to be made, it does kinda strike me the wrong way that some footage clearly and bluntly was taken from YouTube, some videos even showing blurred-out watermarks.
Some small editing mistakes were made (some archival footage in a wrong aspect ratio, episode 4 starts with an interview that we already saw at the end of episode 3), and the long intro to the series gets a bit repetitive after seeing it all 4 episodes, but all in all I have no big things to complain.
I can only imagine what a challenge it must have been for the production crew, to correctly place the case surrounding the death of comedian and actress Sylvia Millecam (and what Jomanda had to do with it) in the right spot in this documentary. Sylvia was an amazing comedian, I'd even argue she'd deserve her own documentary on her life and her greatest achievements. That's why it's a challenge to have all those interviews with people that were close to her placed in a right pacing, without losing the sight on the bigger picture.
The amount of interviews with people that, aside from Tineke, still believe in the powers of Jomanda, could be argued as 'countering' for those people who don't believe or never did. Maybe the documentary painted a too bright and too positive view of Jomanda in those first episodes, only to have that view you could get of her crumbled in the later episodes. It's a bit too much on the nose, you know?
I'm not gonna lie, the finale of the documentary was a bit of a letdown, but they managed to roll with every chance they got (no matter how small those are), which gave some sort of closure... It was, however, in no way an ideal situation. And I genuinely felt bad for Tineke.
One thing I do like about this series in particular, is the addition of Tineke de Nooij and her journey to Canada to find and visit Joke Damman (Jomanda). She makes the story complete, as her work with Jomanda in the past, as well as her still strong (but in no way forcing) belief in Jomanda, her soothing and warm personality gives the documentary series a nice feeling of urgency, and also makes the story come full circle. I'd like to compliment the research done on both the amount of people interviewed (those who still support Jomanda after all these years and those opposed to her), as well as the used footage (newsreports, appearances in programs from that era), coming from both public network-sources as from the commercial networks. However, a side note has to be made, it does kinda strike me the wrong way that some footage clearly and bluntly was taken from YouTube, some videos even showing blurred-out watermarks.
Some small editing mistakes were made (some archival footage in a wrong aspect ratio, episode 4 starts with an interview that we already saw at the end of episode 3), and the long intro to the series gets a bit repetitive after seeing it all 4 episodes, but all in all I have no big things to complain.
I can only imagine what a challenge it must have been for the production crew, to correctly place the case surrounding the death of comedian and actress Sylvia Millecam (and what Jomanda had to do with it) in the right spot in this documentary. Sylvia was an amazing comedian, I'd even argue she'd deserve her own documentary on her life and her greatest achievements. That's why it's a challenge to have all those interviews with people that were close to her placed in a right pacing, without losing the sight on the bigger picture.
The amount of interviews with people that, aside from Tineke, still believe in the powers of Jomanda, could be argued as 'countering' for those people who don't believe or never did. Maybe the documentary painted a too bright and too positive view of Jomanda in those first episodes, only to have that view you could get of her crumbled in the later episodes. It's a bit too much on the nose, you know?
I'm not gonna lie, the finale of the documentary was a bit of a letdown, but they managed to roll with every chance they got (no matter how small those are), which gave some sort of closure... It was, however, in no way an ideal situation. And I genuinely felt bad for Tineke.