El ex-boxeador

A contemplative portrait of the former European boxing champion Santiago Rojas. Victor Garcia made this documentary without mentioning Rojas' former profession and the exciting stories that entailed. The film looks at a day in Rojas’ life as the manager of an underground shop in Barcelona and the spiritual course he attends in the evening. Garcia: ‘Is it possible to make a film with a budget just enough to pay for a couple of mini-DV tapes and a ticket for the underground? That's what I kept asking myself when making The Former Boxer. I had to think of the films of Andy Warhol, of the slovenly style of the documentaries of Joaquim Jordà, of José Luis Guerín's obsession with contemplation. And the deliberately incomplete sideways glances of Raya Martin.’ Garcia is a former student of José Luis Guerín.