With the 10-year benefit for Streetsblog and Streetfilms coming up on November 14 (get your tickets here!), we are counting down the 12 most influential Streetfilms of all-time, as determined by the impresario himself, Clarence Eckerson Jr. This week: Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton sits down with Enrique Peñalosa, then-former and current mayor of Bogota.

Mark Gorton interviews Enrique Peñalosa

Publish Date: Feb 1, 2007

Number of Plays: 21,000

Why is it here? Early on in Streetfilms history, Mark Gorton sat down for interviews with many influential transportation professionals. His talks with Enrique Penalosa, and Jan Gehl in Times Square in 2005, were easily the most eye-opening, clueing in viewers on how policy changes could quickly make a city better.

Peñalosa and Gorton discussed how ciclovías, bus rapid transit, new parks, and protected bike facilities transformed Bogota into a happier and more equitable place.

Fun fact: I set up and operated a pretty complicated three-camera shoot all by myself. This was back in the days of actual videotape and no live mixing board, so to assemble it I had to digitize all three tapes and edit an hour of intense talk to 10 entertaining minutes, and add ample expository b-roll.