Gentrification destroyed the San Francisco I knew. Austin is next | Patrick Bresnan

I turned to documentary film-making to stay sane when Austin was ravaged by skyrocketing rents and breakneck change

Austin, Texas, is in the grip of the kind of gentrification that destroyed San Francisco, and it feels like my duty as a film-maker to document it. I think you have to be a thick-skulled, opinionated, cranky bugger to make films. As a failed comedian who needed to find another way to process everyday life, film-making and photography have maintained my sanity, and our latest film tackles the changes I'm seeing to my local community.

I lived in San Francisco in the 90s as big tech was incubating, and there was a belief that the coming democratization of technology was going to unite us and better the world. There was an incredible sense of anticipation. What we, as 20-year-old punks enjoying the SF Mission district, did not see happening was the complete overrunning of affordable neighborhoods by tech workers and real-estate developers. Housing had become an act of gladiator combat where the most powerful weapon was cash.