J.K. Álvarez

Juan Carlos Álvarez (J.K. Álvarez) was born in Oviedo. He grew up in Luarca (Asturias), a seafaring town that he used later on to set a few stories. In 2006 he moved to Oviedo to study a Degree in Business Management but he quitted it two years later because he wasn't interested on business at all. In 2007, without any training, he shoots with his friend his first short film, El Héroe Olvidado. The warm welcoming the audience gave him encouraged Álvarez to keep on producing. In 2008 he started a Degree in Image and Sound in Oviedo. He completed it in 2010. While studying this degree, he shot a few short films: Con mi Música a otra Parte (2009), La Vida es un Juego de Cartas (2009), or La Noche de las Brujas (2010). By that time, Álvarez was already renown by eminent Asturian journalists as well as personalities from the cinema sector like José Luis Garci, with whom he had a TV meeting in 2009. That same year, an association against gender-based violence trusted him the writing of the script for a short film about GBV. Álvarez spent a few months finding out about this theme and then he wrote a 120 pages script entitled El Cuento de Duna. This work, financed by the Spanish Ministry and premiered in the Asturian cinemas in March 2011, was a media success: Álvarez was nicknamed 'the youngest Spanish director' (he was only 21). Leire Pajín, former Spanish Minister for Health, described the film as 'a tribute to hope'. The film was shown in Madrilenian and Asturian cinemas and distributed along the whole country in DVD format. It aired on TV on the 8th of March 2012. After El Cuento de Duna, Álvarez successfully completed a Master's degree in Cinematography and founded his own film producing company, CSO Pictures. He has produced and directed several video clips, commercials and documentaries, like Caminando entre Cabos (2012) or Caminando al Atlántico (2014). In 2012 he directed a remake of his first work, El Héroe Olvidado, entitled Los Fantasmas de Villavieja. He obtained the Best Asturian Director Award in the Aula 18 Film Festival. In 2014 he shot a new short film entitled Who is Libertad Lionetti? In 2018 will be released his second and third film: 'Caminando hasta el Final' and 'Camping Movie: el Tesoro del Pirata Cambaral'