Annotations for a Work in Progress... In November 1994 I traveled from New York to Barcelona hoping to retain support film in what remained of the original Chinatown. One could say that at the time of my arrival in the neighborhood, this started to disappear. Currently it is being demolished and transformed following a massive urban redevelopment plan. Decline and future life, memory and oblivion: entropy as history.

Urban space in the city of Barcelona is strongly influenced by the phenomenon of tourism. Four people talk about their impressions through their experience of systematised tourism in the city and the daily life of the people who live in it. “Abandoned City” is a 26 minute documentary that that takes its title from the phrase of one of its characters, who talks about the irony of an overcrowded city affected by abandonment. A local representation of a global phenomenon. This documentary is the result of the group work of the first year of the master of visual anthropology UB-Tanios films.

Concrete Coast is about the social, cultural and environmental effects of the last section of un-urbanized Spanish Mediterranean coast being built up for residential tourism in the Region of Murcia. Agriculture is disappearing along this 230 km stretch of coastline and being replaced by 60 golf courses, marinas, freeways and new large-scale planned communities with 1,000,000 residences, mainly for sunseeking British retirees who are set to double the population of Murcia within few years. The impacts of these large-scale economic and political forces are illustrated by a Spanish farming family having their land expropriated and a retired British couple embarking on their new life in a country where they do not even speak the language. How will all of this change the culture of the region? Will the populations integrate? Will these and other Spanish farmers have to emigrate?

Can Ricart, in Barcelona's Poble Nou, was a textiles factory in the 19th century and an industrial complex with numerous workshops in the 20th century. At the start of the 21st century, the approval of the urban rehabilitation project Plan 22@, meant that industrial areas in Poble Nou were earmarked for demolition, to be replaced by office buildings. Can Ricart then became the subject of litigation between the affected workshops, the developer and owner – Federico Ricart, Marquis of Santa Isabel – defenders of the heritage value of the complex who wanted it turned into public space, and Barcelona City Council, responsible for the urban plan.

A documentary about the city of Beijing which is undergoing enormous changes during the preparations for the summer Olympics 2008. A brand new Beijing, with a vision for the future, is replacing the old imperial capital. In a series of close-ups, we meet the people of Beijing who will lose their homes and face an uncertain future. They have raised their voices against the destruction of their homes and the loss of their city's history for ever.

The civic behaviour bylaws recently passed by Barcelona City Council and applied to other Catalan municipalities bear a striking resemblance to Fraga's 1965 “Keep Spain Clean” campaign. Sex workers, skaters, artists, social activists... spoke out against the new legislation. The video covers the numerous demonstrations that were organised against the civic bylaws.