Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the resource of documentary film used to analyse and discuss the urban gentrification process in a city or district. Our proposal is provoking a reflection on how the cinema can bring light to the issue as well as searching possible solutions and ideas to avoid or mitigate the impact of this process that evicts citizens from their own neighbourghood or city.
At the same time, we are interested in the creative view of the filmmaker concerning this thematic and how the documentary cinema can approach aesthetically a crucial cultural and political moment of a neighbourghood. For this analysis we propose a comparison of the following documentaries that have portrayed recently processes of gentrification in European cities: “En Construcción” by José Luis Guerín (Spain, 2001), “Bye, Bye Barcelona”, by Eduardo Chibás Fernández (Spain, 2014) and “O que vai acontecer aqui?” by Left Hand Rotation (Spain/Portugal, 2019).