EPIGRAMA STUDIOS

Case Study

La Bici Nos Une: relatos para la movilidad sostenible y el enfoque de género.

Keywords
Documentary, Production, Creative Direction, Cinematography

Summary La Bici Nos Une - Documentary

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Article

Starting point

  • German Cooperation for Development (GIZ), in partnership with the CFF (Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance / C40 Cities), has been driving crucial urban infrastructure projects in Colombia.
  • However, for bike lanes and alternative transportation policies to move beyond engineering blueprints and become fully embraced by citizens, highlighting their human impact is essential. In urban contexts, cycling is not just a matter of transportation; it is a catalyst for economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social equity.

Challenge / Opportunity

  • The main challenge consisted of researching, discovering, and sensitively translating the profound reasons why bicycle usage contributes to building more sustainable cities with a distinct gender perspective.
  • We faced the technical and narrative task of traveling across diverse geographical contexts in Colombia, capturing the life stories of those who experience sustainable mobility on a daily basis.
  • This presented the perfect opportunity to solidify Epigrama Studios' expertise in crafting stories about ecological transition, linking this project with other studio milestones in the global urban planning sector.

What We Did

We co-created the structure of the pieces alongside the GIZ and CFF teams, as well as the prompting questions for the field interviews, before deploying a field production and social research strategy to bring the documentary miniseries to life:

  • Documentary Miniseries Direction & Filmmaking: We conceptualized and produced La Bici Nos Une (The Bike Unites Us), a 3-chapter miniseries designed as a living archive of urban mobility. Through a cinematic and human-centered lens, we portrayed how the bicycle becomes a tool for women's empowerment, a driver for local economies, and a shield against the climate crisis across the national territory.

  • Social Research & Story Curation: We took to the streets and communities to listen to urban cycling collectives, urban planning experts, and leaders of local initiatives supported by international cooperation. This rigorous curation allowed us to structure an organic script that balances carbon footprint reduction metrics with stories of resilience and gender empowerment.

  • Global Sustainable Mobility Ecosystem: Global Sustainable Mobility Ecosystem: We connected this experience with our robust line of work in urbanism, notably the production of the Virtual Study Tour Bogotá , developed in alliance with ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability). For this project, we led the direction and filmmaking of an interactive 5-episode technical series, designed to transfer knowledge regarding Bogotá's mass transit and sustainable public policies to urban planners worldwide.

1. Gender and Transgenerational Perspectives Through the Bicycle Lens:

The first chapter of our intervention focused on bringing visibility to the urban space from a horizontal, inclusive, and decolonial perspective. Traditionally, transit planning has ignored care-work dynamics and women's safety on the streets, as well as the needs of different age groups, from children to older adults. By documenting how the bicycle redistributes the right to the city, promotes public health and physical well-being at any age, and fosters a transgenerational dialogue within public spaces, we ensured the miniseries transcended the institutional video format, transforming it into an essential political and pedagogical piece on equity and quality of life.

2. Art Direction and Territorial Aesthetic

Filmmaking on the streets demands immense technical flexibility and an art direction that seamlessly adapts to the city's organic rhythm. Epigrama Studios designed an agile and respectful production framework, utilizing cinematic lenses to capture both the raw beauty and the harsh realities of Colombia's urban environments. In post-production, we applied a rigorous editing and color grading process that provides the three chapters with a unified, modern, and highly aesthetic atmosphere.

3. Virtual Knowledge Transfer: The ICLEI Bogotá Case

Our capacity to narrate city transformation expanded globally with the production of the 5-episode interactive series for ICLEI. For this project, the challenge lay in structuring a technical virtual journey with a high density of educational content. We translated Bogotá's mobility strategies into a seamless and visually engaging e-learning tool, demonstrating our studio's ability to structure complex narratives that educate international decision-makers on the green future of metropolises.

Results Achieved

  • Validation Before International Cooperation: We consolidated an audiovisual ecosystem of the highest technical and conceptual caliber delivered to the full satisfaction of GIZ and the CFF, serving as a tangible memory of the success of their investments in Colombian territory.

  • Consolidation as an Expert Node in Sustainable Urbanism: By combining the impact of La Bici Nos Une (The Bike Unites Us) with the 5-episode series of the Virtual Study Tour of ICLEI, Epigrama Studios positions itself internationally as a benchmark design and production studio for communicating sustainability and global urban policy. These skills were then useful in subsequent publishing projects with C40.

  • Social Pedagogy and Democratization of Infrastructure: The produced assets currently function as official tools for public engagement, allowing citizens and local governments to understand the value of clean transit projects through an empathetic, inclusive, and human-centered approach.

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