The documentary receives only 6% of public aid from film funds

ProDocs, BOW y Gusano Films share the largest documentary report in Spain, Challenges and opportunities of the cinematographic documentary produced in Spain: 2015-2020, that sheds light on this sector.

The x-ray, presented in the auditorium of the CCCB of Barcelona within the framework of the festival DocsBarcelona, provides data of special relevance. Although, between 2015 y 2020 in Spain there were 730 works which are equivalent to 58,873 minutes of content, the format was “decreased by a problem of underfinancing”, since, in those six years, the 6% of public aid coming from of film funds were invested in the documentary, a figure much lower than that of fiction (82%).

The report reflects the sector financing problems with examples such as the downward trend in investment by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA): from the €2.3 million invested in documentaries in 2018, this dropped to €1.9 million in 2020. Regarding allocations by public television, 24.3% was allocated to documentaries. Furthermore, the allocations “were very irregular from one year to the next”, a fact that “makes stability difficult” in the sector. However, it should be noted that these data are only provisional estimates, since the opacity of some public television stations has prevented all the information from being collected: “This is the case of RTVE (Spanish Radio Television),” the document points out.

The document also brings to light other pending subjects in the production of documentaries. One of the most notable is the gender inequality, since in Spain 75% of construction management is held by men.

A necessary initiative

The database of ProDocs, Gusano Films and PROA was born out of the need of the audiovisual sector and cultural institutions to have a complete, accessible and versatile platform for the production of documentaries in Spain. It was a “necessary step” to transparently consult the public aid and subsidies granted to the audiovisual sector and “know the social impact and audiences of the productions.” In short, to portray the state of health of the documentary genre and help both the industry and the public administration to promote this type of productions.

However, the authors of the tool came across the lack of transparency of public entities and lack of systematization of data. “There should be a common, accessible and standardized database in which public aid from the State would be reflected, and in which all public institutions and television stations would collect the same variables,” he states. Jorge Caballero Ramos, co-founder of Gusano Films and one of the authors of the study.

Despite what is established by the Transparency Law In terms of accessible and understandable information, researchers had to make numerous requests through instances of access to public information. Through these procedures and the downloading of data on the institutions' websites, they were able to collect information from film institutes, cultural councils, film catalogs and public television stations. However, “television stations such as RTVE and the Canario Audiovisual Fund did not provide the information.”

The keys to the study can be consulted here.