Chelo Alvarez-Stehle

Chelo Alvarez-Stehle is a Spanish and American journalist and documentary filmmaker. In Japan, she worked as managing editor for En Español weekly and as Tokyo correspondent for El Mundo daily. As a documentary filmmaker she is best known for (Arenas de Silencio) [es], winner of the 59th Southern California Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club for Best Feature Documentary.
Career.
Alvarez-Stehle was born in Logroño, Spain.  Daughter of , surgeon and senator, and Consuelo González Oñate. She studied Medicine at University of Navarra and University of Zaragoza but dropped out.
In 1991, she was awarded the EEC's Executive Training Programme (ETP) in Japan fellowship and moved to Tokyo. She then worked for NHK Enterprises in the development of documentary films and as managing editor of "" en español, Japan’s first Spanish weekly. In 1994, she became Tokyo's correspondent for Spain's El Mundo daily. In 1995, Chelo moved to California, settling in Malibu and continued to contribute to El Mundo and other media outlets such us Geo and Planeta Humano, specializing in social and women’s issues.
In 2002, she became an American Translators Association certified translator (English into Spanish). She has worked as a translator and a copy editor to support her creative work. Her book translation and editing includes museum guides for the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2005, she edited the Spanish edition of Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium. Pope John Paul II, Rizzoli.
In 2003, Canal+ (Spanish satellite broadcasting company) turned her first reportage on child trafficking in the Himalayas for "Planeta Humano" magazine into the documentary film "Tin Girls" (Niñas de Hojalata, 2003) for which Alvarez-Stehle was interviewer, assistant director and consultant.
In 2006, Alvarez-Stehle produced/directed "The Power of 2", a short documentary on Cubans' thirst for inner peace, which has been distributed in over 30 countries. In 2009, she produced/directed "Sold in America: A Modern-Day Tale of Sex Slavery," a short documentary on sex trafficking that premiered at the Montreal Human Rights Film Festival.
In 2016 she produced, with director Tim Nackashi, the short "Through The Wall", about a family divided by the Mexico-United States border. The film was acquired by "The Guardian" and by Latino Public Broadcasting for PBS Digital Studios. It won the award for Best Web Series at the 31st Imagen Awards as well as a Social Impact Media Award.
In 2016, she produced her first feature-length documentary, "Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage", a film that addresses the full spectrum of sexual violence, from child sexual abuse and priest abuse to sexual assault and sex trafficking. The film's team of editors includes Academy Award-winner "Kate Amend". It received multiple awards in the Americas and Europe. Alvarez-Stehle has presented it at over 25 film festivals across continents, at multiple universities such as Oxford and Yale, at Bar Associations in the US and Europe, at women's organizations, and in prisons to sexual violence offenders.
Alvarez-Stehle's 2017 documentary about sex trafficking and exploitation, "Sands of Silence", was her first feature-length film. In 2018, the "Los Angeles Press Club" held a screening and Q&A of the film moderated by "Patt Morrison" of the "Los Angeles Times".
Presented in 2017 at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the United Nations, New York, along with Equality Now and UN Women.
Presented at the European Parliament in 2017, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). 
Broadcast on RTVE on November 25, 2017, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Selected works.
Awards.
Film.
Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage" Feature-length documentary. Spanish title: Arenas de Silencio: Olas de Valor.
"Through the Wall". Short Documentary. Spanish title: "A través del muro".