Check out my resume on LinkedIn.

About Yula

I was born in Moscow. Just before the fall of the Soviet Union, my parents immigrated to the Netherlands. From my upbringing, I inherited the love for literature and theatre, and a even more the love for (telling) stories. I’m a generalist and I like to know a bit about everything. Being open and sociable helps me to encounter stories and friends. At this moment I live in Amsterdam, with my husband, composer Jesse Koolhaas and our children.

Work

I work as an independent cross media researcher and creative producer for documentary radio, television, film and commercials. Together with others I develop engaging projects on the intersection of media, technology and art. I am professional, flexible and able to easily move among different people and in various social environments.

My projects include development and impact campaign of the feature documentary ‘Bellingcat – truth in the post truth world‘ (Emmy Award winner for best feature documentary 2019), research for Netflix original series ‘Human Playground’

My radio documentary ‘Our Success story’ deals with stories we tell throughout our lives. In 1994, a group of refugee children went on stage together to tell their stories. I was one of them. 25 years later I find the others to go back in time based on recordings of the play. What are their stories today?

More recent is ‘Yula & Yuliya – when a distant war suddenly comes near’. Both works have been nominated for Prix Europa.

At the moment I am working on the development of an interactive installation about psychic espionage during the Cold War era.

Education

I studied Communications (at the University of Amsterdam) and Cultural Studies (at the Vrije Universiteit) specializing in Word & Image in film. Slowly I realized that I want to tell stories of my own. In 2008 I was admitted to the Media Academy in Hilversum where I completed my Masters Degree in Crossmedial storytelling. I am trained as a writer, researcher, presenter and producer for radio and television.

Yula is a passionate radio producer, full of great ideas. I have worked with her a lot on both the documentary program Plots and the 1-Minute series. She made wonderful stories such as the 1-minuut “Opera is een beetje drama”, which is unforgettable.
Katinka Baehr, radio producer and editor in chief

Yula has hosted the moderators’ workshop to coach the future generation of IDFA’s Q&A moderators. She has created an open and safe space for exchange and learning. Within one evening, she succeeded in bringing out the best out of each of our guests. 

 

Sebastián Vásquez and Klara Kajdi, IDFA
Yula Altchouler worked on several episodes of my Russia-series for the VPRO. She was a real asset to these productions, because of her positive attitude and her original ideas.
Jelle Brandt Corstius, television producer and presenter
Yula is a true storyteller. One can feel that she is sensitive and involved. She sees opportunities everywhere and has a great network. Yula is authentic and straight in her communication. And perhaps most importantly, she is someone you can have a tremendous laugh with! I had the pleasure of working with her and would do it agian right away.
Alet Klarenbeek, WOMEN Inc.

Yula and I collaborated during several months on a very exciting project within Submarine Channel. She combines in the most exciting way utter professionalism, from bold exploratory ideas to minute production details, with the warmest most compassionate human approach in everything she does. I just loved every second of our work together and I cannot wait for the next opportunity to do it again!

 

Michel Reilhac , Curator VR-section Venice Film Biennale, transmedia author

I am very positive about your guidance while I was developing of my documentary  during the ReFresh project. By talking about your experience and people about whom you made programs, I became more aware of my own position as a prodcucer. It has made me feel stronger. Many thanks!

Luna Hupperetz, Researcher and curator film collections