by Steven Seedo
PARAMARIBO — Nina Jurna, correspondent of the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) for Latin America, would like to see her three-part TV documentary ‘Our Woman in Rio’, which started this week, also shown in Suriname. The series, in which she takes the viewer through her hometown of Rio de Janeiro, premiered on Sunday. “I think it would be good if the series was also shown in Suriname. Brazil is a neighboring country after all,” Jurna says. the True Time.
In ‘Our Woman in Rio’ she shows different sides of the city of millions, which in her eyes has great contradictions: beauty and struggle, love and violence, poverty and wealth. The city can enchant and intoxicate, but at the same time it can also hurt.
“Rio has a vibrant energy. I have found a home here and can recharge here after intensive travel for work.”
Nina Jurna
In the series she takes the viewer on a journey favelas (slums), where a large part of the population lives, to the luxurious neighborhoods and the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. “I have lived here for fifteen years and know the city quite well. Yet Rio continues to surprise me.”
The series is released in an important year for Brazil. Presidential elections will be held in October. Safety is an important theme, especially in Rio, where violence and crime have been major social issues for years.
The growing influence of evangelical Christians is also discussed in the series. Especially in the favelas This movement is rapidly gaining popularity. Political parties and candidates are therefore increasingly focusing on this group.
Similarities with Suriname
Jurna says about Rio: “For me it is a city that I never get tired of. Just when you think you understand it, everything turns out to be different again. That makes it elusive and exciting.”
At the same time, it is a place where she feels at home. “Rio has a vibrant energy. I have found a home here and can recharge here after intensive travel for work.”
Although Rio is difficult to compare with Suriname due to its enormous size, Jurna does see similarities. “This is of course a very large city, so a comparison is difficult. But for example, in terms of conviviality and the friendliness of the people, there are certainly similarities.” When asked what she thinks Suriname could learn from Brazil, Jurna mainly mentions cooperation and local production. “I think that people in Brazil are more used to working together. I sometimes have the feeling that in Suriname that is more difficult. In Brazil, a lot of things are made in-house and there is a lot of own production. But it is of course also a much larger country.”
The abundance of local fruit is also striking. “You see fruit stalls everywhere. Suriname of course also has a lot of fruit, so I think there are opportunities there.”
Link with Suriname
Jurna (1969) previously worked and lived in Suriname for more than ten years. Her bond with the country is therefore still strong. She does not rule out making a documentary about Suriname, possibly about one of the districts. “I lived there for ten years and part of my roots are there.”
From Brazil she works as a journalist and Latin America correspondent for the Dutch newspaper, among others NRC and the NOS. She has been traveling through Latin America for years and her reports often focus on human stories, with themes such as inequality, culture and social developments. She previously made films for the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO the series ‘From Bahia to Brooklyn, Caribbean Stories (2023) and the podcast series ‘Latin Impact’ for the same channel.
