Oliva Oliva

Piaf intime

October 2013 •French

this evening out of boredom washed my hands three times in succession in the bathroom

August 2024 •English

Reminiscences of a trip to Čáslav

A Million Debt Is Normal, Says My Grandfather

March 2006 •German

"In A MILLION IN DEBT IS NORMAL, SAYS MY GRANDFATHER, Gabriele Mathes traces the consequences of the decline of her father’s furniture factory via her family’s Super-8 footage(..)" (Viennale)

Reflection

January 2014 •Japanese

Eerie images of landscapes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster shot on black and white 8mm.

Notes of Resistance and Erasure

June 2021 •English

This experimental short traces the lifespan of the graffiti and murals present at the occupation of NYC’s City Hall in June and July of 2020. The encampment formed to demand the abolishment of the NYPD and the reallocation of its resources to housing, education, and other social programs.

American Teenagers

November 2022 •English

A short documentary project that attempts to encapsulate what it looks and feels like to be an American Teenager in 2022.

The Painting

November 2019 •Spanish

For three and a half centuries, from the same day that Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) applied his last brushstroke to the canvas, the enigma of “Las meninas, o La familia de Felipe IV” (1656) has not been deciphered. The secret story of a painting unveiled as if it was the resolution of a perfect crime.

The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone

October 2003 •Spanish

An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain.

Històries de Bruguera

April 2012 •Spanish

The history of Bruguera, the most important comic publisher in Spain between the 1940s and the 1980s. How the characters created by great writers and pencilers became Spanish archetypes and how their strips persist nowadays as a portrait of Spain and its people. The daily life of the creators and the founding family, the Brugueras. The world in which hundreds of vivid colorful paper beings lived and still live, in the memory of millions, in the smile of everyone.

Shotgun Baby

March 2025 •English

A personal documentary questioning the ways in which family imposed narratives force us into roles that we spend our lives either rebelling against or conforming to.

Marisol: llámame Pepa

May 2024 •Spanish

A portrait of the actress and singer Pepa Flores, an incarnation of the recent history of Spain, who, in just twenty-five years of intense career, went from being Marisol, child prodigy of the Franco dictatorship, to being one of the first communist militants, icon of the Transition; an idol of the masses who became a discreet person after having claimed her right to remain silent.

Ventana en Carrer de Badajoz

September 2021 •Spanish

Sara and Alberto spend their days at home. They look out the window and watch: spring is approaching and the sun is setting later and later. Alberto entertains himself by playing with the light, the shadows and the nooks and crannies they leave on the living room. Sara goes out on the balcony in the evenings and examines the neighborhood with her camera. When they are in bed, they talk about what worries them. About job expectations. About being creative and why keep trying, if someone else has done it before you. About living in confinement, but at the same time, realizing that things haven't changed as much as they seem.

Birth of a Nation

August 1997 •English

Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own “nation of cinema,” a vital community existing outside the dominance of commercial film.

Mysteries of The Underworld Cordoba

December 2019 •Spanish

National Geographic follows archaeologist and explorer Fabio Amador on a fascinating voyage to unveil the ancient mysteries that lie beneath the modern streets of Cordoba, which dates back some 2,000 years. Fabio joins archaeologists and historians in the field as they use state-of-the-art technologies to discover and recreate Cordoba's forgotten past.

The Footprints of a Spirit

October 1998 •Spanish

The story of the creation of The Spirit of the Beehive, a film directed by Víctor Erice in 1973.

Crash 'n' Burn

January 1977 •English

Crash 'n' Burn is an experimental film shot in and named after Toronto, Ontario's first punk rock club. (Not to be confused with Peter Vronsky's similarly titled 1977 documentary on the Toronto punk scene made for the CBC television network.) The film, shot on 16mm black-and-white stock, features performances by Dead Boys, Teenage Head, The Boyfriends, and The Diodes".

Death in Amara

April 2024 •Spanish

San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain, June 27, 1960. A bomb explodes at the Amara train station. Begoña, a child of only twenty months, dies a few hours later as a result of the injuries sustained in the attack.

Antonio García-Trevijano: Transición e historia política de España en primera persona

July 2021 •Spanish

Spanish jurist and republican thinker Antonio García-Trevijano (1927-2018) expounds his political thought and reflects on the recent political history of Spain.

beer cans under my bed

March 2024 •English

This short, started early on into sobriety, finished about nine months in, is a collage of diaries and notes, collected from within addiction and into recovery.

Spain: The First Globalization

October 2021 •Spanish

A new reading of the historical period that began with the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (1479-1516) and the discovery of America (1492), as well as an analysis of its undeniable influence on the subsequent evolution of the history of Spain and the world.