Results

Urban Transformations and Changes in the Landscape

Since their origins in the 20th century, movies have used actual spaces as a habitual scenario for telling their stories. That there is a correspondence between geographic space and cinema is not surprising, since the development of this media has coincided with a period in which cities have grown substantially- spatially as well as demographically -, with notable changes in rural as well as natural areas. Just like photography, painting, literature and documentaries, movies and fiction series are of great use for displaying transformations in urban spaces as well as in rural and natural ones, becoming witnesses to the changes the territory undergoes. Vis-a-vis photography, moving images can provide a view of these changes that entail a wealth of information for their analysis. Read more

Images from movies and series make up, as such, material of interest that complements other means for representing territory. They enable a more complete understanding, for example of certain architectural elements or a given urban area, independently of whether or not they still exist. Furthermore, as they are narrative documents, the contents of these audiovisual productions are more intensely transmitted to the viewer, thereby enhancing the sense of change that they reveal.
The material analyzed has allowed us to establish a series of transformation categories:

Large urban transformations and new urban developments.
Cases of urban renewal.
Transformation of transportation infrastructures.
Demolition and construction of new buildings.
Notable changes in usage.
Changes in urban green space and in parks and gardens.
Incorporation of rural and natural areas into new urban spaces.
Establishment of diverse infrastructures in non-urbanized areas.
Changes in farming and livestock use.
Changes in vegetation landscape.

To illustrate these processes, a map viewer based on the project’s most notable cases from the project El espacio geográfico de Madrid en el cine y su potencial turístico (The geographic space of Madrid in film and its tourism potential) (2014-2017), from GeoCine Group. At present, this map is being expanded by the ESCINE research group at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, within the framework of the project La ficción audiovisual en la Comunidad de Madrid: lugares de rodaje y desarrollo del turismo cinematográfico (Audiovisual fiction in the Madrid Region: filming locations and development of screen tourism) (FICMATUR), ongoing since 2020.

Access the transformations viewer

Title

Amador

Director

Fernando León de Aranoa

Year film released

2010

Year photo taken

2019

Localization

8, San Timoteo Street
Neighborhood of Puerta del Ángel (Latina)