What began as an audiovisual production for an architectural project—Vive Bambú—turned into a lifelong passion. This is the story of Colombian architect and professor Alberto Moncayo, who shared details of his latest film project with the newspaper El Espectador.
"Architecture earns me a living, but I live for cinema," comments Moncayo, while working on the filming of "De topos y sapos," inspired by the historic Banco de la República heist of 1977. In this event, two brothers dug a tunnel to the vault of the bank branch in the city of Pasto, stealing 82 million Colombian pesos at the time (equivalent to USD 38.2 million today).
With 13 years of development spanning research, production, and fundraising campaigns, the project runs parallel to the architect's own career as a filmmaker. He completed a degree in film at the Centre d'Estudis Cinematogràfics de Catalunya (CECC) in Europe and, since his return in 2006, has taught at the University of Nariño.
According to Cinefilia, Moncayo teaches filmmaking courses and produced the first Diploma program in Film Construction with the support of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Canada. "Architecture is designed; film is written. The architect builds; in film, it is produced," Moncayo reflects.
Learn more about the film "De topos y sapos" at this link.
Via El Espectador, Cinefilia.
This article was written by Nicolás Valencia. The translation is powered by AI.
