Carles Bosch or always starting from scratch

The documentary genre is experiencing a clear expansion. And yet, very few can dedicate themselves to it exclusively. "It gives prestige but it doesn't give money," laments Carles Bosch, who has just premiered his latest work, Petitet, at DocsBarcelona.

Carles Bosch is a veteran of the trade. He worked twenty years at TV3. He was one of the first reporters for the program 30 minuts, where his war reports and international conflicts earned him several awards. In 2002, he signed, along with Josep Ma. Domènech, his first feature documentary, Balseros, about Cuban families trying to reach the North American coast. It received an Oscar nomination and was an unprecedented success. Along with En construcción, by José Luis Guerín, it inaugurated the documentary boom in Spain. Afterwards came Septiembres (2007), Revolució (2009) and Bicicleta, cullera, poma (2010), for which he received the Goya and had a notable international presence.

Journalism runs in his veins and he confesses that he feels more like a reporter than a "film director" although he also assures that documentary has helped him navigate a profession that is not experiencing its best moment. "We are accepting to work for the ideology that pays us. I say it in plural although I believe that, fortunately, I have managed not to do it."

It's hard to believe that someone with such a resume still finds it difficult (and very much so) to get each new project off the ground. He accepts it as part of the game and assumes that each time he has to start from scratch. To make Petitet he used part of his severance pay from TV3 (yes, it's also hard to believe, but the public television included him in an ERE) and surrounded himself with young people with not much experience, but with enthusiasm and commitment. He committed to finding funding and, finally, he got it. "I have been able to work with great freedom and with a certain spirit of resistance."

CarlesBosch, who usually applies classic novel structures or fiction scripts to his documentary works, in which there is always a progression in time and a development of the characters, advises participating as a producer, being able to have access to the numbers and some rights over awards and international reach. "There is a very great effort on the part of the author in this type of project and it seems fair to obtain some compensation."