Chelo Alvarez-Stehle

She was awarded the Equality Prize "Teresa León Goyri - City of Logroño" 2022 highlighting the vital and professional career of Alvarez-Stehle as journalist, writer, filmmaker and women's rights advocate and, especially, her fight against sexual violence and trafficking. The award of the City of Logroño bears the name of the Spanish politician, writer and activist of the Generation of '27, María Teresa León Goyri, one of the so-called "Hatless Women," as a tribute and recognition of her social commitment and her literary work.

In 2022, the book Las semillas de Atenea - Historias de Mujeres Brillantes 2, published by the Concejalía de Igualdad del Ayuntamiento de Logroño, dedicates a chapter, written by Pío García Tricio and illustrated by Andrea Acedo Bueno, to Chelo Alvarez-Stehle's work as a documentary filmmaker focusing on her documentary Sands of Silence (Arenas de Silencio).

In 2021, South African publisher Quinton van der Burgh Media, publishes the portrait book 100 Making A Difference, an initiative of Hollywood photographer John Russo, featuring one hundred people and organizations leading social projects, from celebrities like George Clooney, to activists like Malala Yousafzai, and including among them Chelo Alvarez-Stehle and Virginia Isaías, protagonist of the documentary Arenas of Silence and founder of the Survivors of Human Trafficking Foundation.

In 2018, the Los Angeles Press Club organized a presentation and discussion of Sands of Silence moderated by journalist Patt Morrison of The Los Angeles Times.

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.

Broadcast on RTVE's "La noche temática" show on November 25, 2017, under its Spanish title "Arenas de Silencio", also on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

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.

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 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 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 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 International Press 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 as Geo and Planeta Humano, specializing in social and women’s issues.

Chelo Alvarez-Stehle is a Spanish and American journalist and documentary filmmaker. In Japan, she worked as managing editor for International Press En Español weekly and as Tokyo correspondent for El Mundo daily. As a documentary filmmaker she is best known for Sands of Silence (Arenas de Silencio) [es], winner of the 59th Southern California Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club for Best Feature Documentary.