Oliva Oliva

The Painting(es)

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.

Once Upon A Time In Germany(de)

Indifferent landscapes, refracting light, some lonely bird and the window to the sebum-laden living room made of patterned wallpaper and trivialities. Cut. Tenacious sequences inflate moments to cliff-hangers and shatter their tremulous spectatorship. Thundering leitmotifs – in constant intoxication by German disinterest – with no backrest or lederhosen. Black-red-gold at full mast, the cinema is dead.

The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone(es)

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

Libertad negra(es)

June(en)

A letter of love to my past self who discovered himself.

A Jornada(pt)

A mixture of a time travel, a documentary, artistic and performative record of the director's subjective view of the places, people and moments he spent from 2015 to 2018. Filmed on super 8 mm film.

Marisol: llámame Pepa(es)

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.

Layering(en)

This short experimental diary film reveals my struggles with mental illness in my adolescence and queer adulthood while simultaneously reflecting upon my joyous childhood experiences. I investigate when and how my depression began and explain that my relationships with the people I love have supported me through my harder times. The film incorporates footage shot over May and June 2023 and archival home videos. Overall, I aim to resolve my "growing pains" through the medium of diary film and by reconnecting with my younger self.

Notes of Resistance and Erasure(en)

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.

Piaf intime(fr)

Reflection(ja)

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

Far Away(es)

A landscape is only a landscape until we know what lies beneath. Pozo Ibarra, in the Central Mountains of León, is a mining complex full of significant architectural attributes, and also the imposing and ruinous remnant of a painful past that passed the ideas of freedom, literally, through the stone, turned into a great mass grave. Now, when the sun goes down, the souls that inhabit it rise up, refusing to forget.

Death in Amara(es)

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.

Crash 'n' Burn(en)

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".

Archive of Life(en)

This documentary short-film follows the story of The White Bus Cinema based in Southend-on-Sea. They keep the process of projecting real celluloid film alive by showing films from their archive of over 3,000 films, ranging from Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm prints. The film argues why it's important to continue the shooting and projection process of film in our current age of digital shooting and projection in modern Hollywood, amidst the chaos of studios removing films from their streaming services.

European Tour '73(en)

A 15 minute documentary utilizing archival Super 8 film footage and original animation about a father fulfilling his dream of reconnecting his 5 small children to the steps of his own father when he fought for the Canadian military in WW2 through a trip to Europe in 1973.

The Souvenirs of Mr. X(de)

A filmmaker finds 2 boxes of Super-8 films of an unknown amateur at a flea market. He goes on an investigative journey to find this person and dives into the wonderful, obsessive universe of amateur film with its own rules, competitions and the passionate love for the moving images.

Lentejuelas de sangre(es)

Antonio Gracia José (1942-2011), known as “Pierrot,” was a prominent member of the Barcelona art scene, a pioneer in the filmmaking of underground short films and Fantaterror movies, writer and playwright, magazine editor, movie poster painter, cartoonist and cabaret showman.

Miraggi di pianura(it)

The Via Emilia changes and becomes an open-air museum: hidden installations - although architecturally majestic - invite us to shift our perspective, to rethink the journeys that we thought we knew by heart.

Tove and Tooti in Europe(sv)

Tove and Tooti in Europe is a documentary charting the voyages through Europe of the world famous author Tove Jansson and graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä during the years 1972-1993. It is a lyrical and sometimes hilarious film essay on the “old Europe”, experienced by travellers and observers, of times when people used to wander, share a joke, pause and, sometimes, even stop. Shot on Super 8 mm, the film takes us to Paris, Venice, London, Madrid and Dublin; Iceland, Ireland and Corsica.