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Nadie Habló de Ellas
(The Girls No One Spoke Of)
19’ - Spain - 2026
Democracy arrived, but the doors stayed locked.
From 1941 to 1985, over 80,000 women and girls were confined in religious centres across Spain, having committed no crime. They were held under the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer, the longest-lasting repressive institution of the Franco dictatorship.
In 1985 the State officially dissolved the Patronato, but for decades afterwards, many of the centres kept operating.
Elena, Mayte and Cristina entered in 1987, 1989 and 1993. The same buildings, the same staff and the same treatment, in a Spain that was formally democratic. This is the first record of their experiences.
How long does a dictatorship outlive its dictator?
CREDITS
Director - Olivia West Álvarez
Cinematographer - Agnes Marie Kristiansen
Editor - Maria Alonso Araujo
Composer - Odina
Sound Designer - Tom Bosher
FILM FESTIVAL S
London Short Film Festival (2027)
Leeds Film Festival, In Competition (2026)
Bolton Film Festival, Official Selection (2026)
San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Official Selection (2026)
LA Dance Film Festival 2026, Official Selection (2026)
New Renaissance Film Festival, In Competition (2026)
FORM, Official Selection (2026)
London Short Film Festival (2027)
Leeds Film Festival, In Competition (2026)
Bolton Film Festival, Official Selection (2026)
San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Official Selection (2026)
LA Dance Film Festival 2026, Official Selection (2026)
New Renaissance Film Festival, In Competition (2026)
FORM, Official Selection (2026)
a moment of reverence
4’ - UK - 2026
What remains of dance when it is no longer seen?
In a single, unbroken shot, a blind woman listens to a live performance unfolding out of frame. Carried by poetic audio description and music, the choreography is encountered through sound, language, and imagination.
Made in collaboration with a choreographer, an audio describer, and a blind artist, the work explores accessibility as part of the creative process.
CREDITS
Director, Producer & Cinematographer - Olivia West Álvarez
Editor - Rafael Luis Fernando
Composer - Katrina Rose
Sound Designer - Vicente Molder
Colourist - Diyar Akar
Performance - Rachel Coleman
Audio description - Caroline Burn & Olivia West Álvarez
Audio description voiced by - Katrina Rose
Querida Mamá
22’ - UK - 2026
As Jahayra writes letters to her mother, her words trace a journey from Ecuador to London, unfolding a tender portrait of love, sacrifice, and resilience, in the search for a better life for her children.
Set against the backdrop of a vanishing community, Querida Mamá is an intimate and poetic portrait of motherhood and migration, a story of love that endures across distance. The film invites us to slow down and see the beauty in the everyday, revealing the quiet resilience needed to maintain a sense of home.
CREDITS
Director & Producer - Olivia West Álvarez
Cinematographer - Carolina Lobo Nunes
Editor - Karin Raksanugraha
Sound Designer - Vicente Molder
Composer - NESLO
FILM FESTIVALS
London Short Film Festival, In Competition (2027)
Doqumenta Film Festival, Official Selection (2026)
RS Film Festival, Official Selection (2026)
The Art of Intimacy
12’ - UK - 2024
As a dominatrix, Eva Oh has made power both her profession and her way of life. Her clients come to her for something precise: control, surrender, the feeling of being completely seen. But what happens when the session ends?
The Art of Intimacy explores the woman beyond the dominatrix, and asks what someone who has mastered intimacy as a craft wants from it for herself.
CREDITS
Director, Producer & Cinematographer - Olivia West Álvarez
Editor - Ronak Kotian
Composer - Dominic Carrington
Sound Designer - Felix Donovan
My Body is Not My Heart
1’ - Czech Republic - 2026
Experimental short developed at the JiHlava International Documentary Film Festival Academy (2026), tutored by Khavn de la Cruz.
TV WORK
NDA
Channel 4 - Empress Films - 2027
Shooting Producer
NDA (Football Series)
ESPN - Fulwell73 - 2027
Assistant Producer
Parole
BBC2 - RAW - 2023
Archive Assistant Producer
A Murder in the Family
ITV 1 - Knickerbockerglory - 2022
Researcher
NDA
Channel 4 - Brinkworth - 2027
Producer
Our War: 10 Years On
BBC - BBC Studios - 2024
Development Assistant Producer
BBC & Hulu - Naked TV - 2022
Assistant Producer
Grayson Perry’s Art Club
Channel 4 - Swan Films - 2021
Researcher
The Devil in My DMs
Disney+ - Lightbox - 2027
Assistant Producer
Netflix - Try Hard Films - 2022
Assistant Producer
Social Media Murders
ITV X - Knickerbockerglory - 2021
Researcher
Amazon Prime - Salon Pictures - 2021
Archive Researcher
ABOUT
I’m Olivia, a Spanish-British documentary Director and Producer based in London.
Documentaries help us understand who we are. Not in theory, but in the specific, messy detail of real lives. Documentaries have the power to trace the hidden lines between the personal and the forces around us, to lay bare the systems that shape our lives, and in doing so, remind us that our stories are worth telling, our struggles matter, our joy matters, and bearing witness matters.
I’m interested in how personal stories intersect with the social forces that shape them, in unpicking the subtle tensions between choice and circumstance, and in questioning socially constructed norms and expectations.
My films have screened internationally at festivals including London Short Film Festival, Bolton Film Festival, Leeds Film Festival, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, LA Dance Film Festival and Doqumenta Film Festival.
Alongside my own filmmaking, I produce documentaries for television and streamers, including Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, BBC, Channel 4. I also programme films for cultural institutions such as the Barbican, which is mostly an excuse to watch more films.
I have an MFA in Documentary Directing from the National Film and Television School.
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WHERE TO FIND ME
oliviawestal@gmail.com
Vimeo
Talent Manager