Invisible Commutes: A documentary on Domestic Workers’ Mobility in Colombia

On the 23rd of May, Dr. Anna Nikolaeva and Dr. Irene Gómez-Varo , researchers of the GPIO Department (University of Amsterdam), hosted a special documentary screening event under the umbrella of their ongoing research on the Gendered Mobilities Project, marking the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing series of sessions exploring the concepts of gendered mobilities and mobility of care. We had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Valentina Montoya-Robledo, who has worked as a lawyer and as a direct collaborator with the domestic workers’ union UTRASD in Colombia and launched INVISIBLE COMMUTES as a collaborative space to make the stories of more than 14 million women in the region visible and to enable them to access the Right to the City. 

Dr. Anna Nikolaeva and Dr. Irene Gómez Varo, researchers at the GPIO Department (University of Amsterdam) organizers of the event, introducing the screening.

The documentary portrays the lives and daily commutes of female domestic workers in Colombia, and the ways in which mobility systems do not align with their needs, resulting in commutes that can sometimes take up to seven(!) hours of their day. The moment the floor was opened for questions, there was no silence, as a lively discussion started to emerge.

Through following the commutes of the domestic workers, as well as hearing their stories, Valentina showed with this documentary how the domestic workers have not been treated as citizens, being invisible to urban planners. This is happening because in urban planning, the focus in decision-making is often still based on what the so-called ‘expert’ thinks. But what about the people who use and experience the space on a daily basis? Their voices need to be heard too, as experts are not always in touch with the area they are planning for. An interesting point of discussion that came up during the Q&A was that planners often present plans that include “access for everyone”. But who is everyone? Valentina suggested that phrasing plans in this way does not recognize the diversity of an urban population, and consequently does not include a variety of marginalized groups with their specific transport needs, like the domestic workers. This documentary, then, reflects on spaces of power: who gets to decide on how the urban environment is shaped and used, and what this means for the people who are experiencing these spaces on a daily basis. But this problem is not only limited to planning practice: Valentina emphasized the importance for male scholars to engage with concepts like ‘mobility of care’ and criticized male-dominated urban planning.

Furthermore, researching the experiences of domestic workers’ commutes also sparked discussion on using film as a research method. In the documentary, it became clear that film can create a valuable emotional dimension to research, as the emotions that were visible and felt were able to claim visibility and, consequently, also space. This discussion brought up another question: how can emotions like pain in humanity and dignity be included in studies of epistemic transport justice? Or how can we include emotion in academic papers to start with? Currently there seems to be resistance to emotion in papers: people often ask about the ‘data’ when looking for proof on a specific urban problem, suggesting the dominance of quantitative methodologies in mobility research. This creates a moment to reflect on what categories of knowledge are seen as more important? Quantitative or qualitative research? Papers or film? This documentary then adds a layer of complexity to the often utilitarian and quantitative view of the concept of mobility, and shows that by using innovative research methods like film can shed light on understudied urban problems. The lack of data doesn’t mean the issue is not real, it only means no one is capturing it. Or as Valentina states it, this documentary creates the space for “opening up a conversation that most people know about, but are not conscious about”.

Dr. Valentina Montoya Robledo (University of Oxford) and Sandra La Rota (University of Antwerpen), giving a discussion after the screening of the documentary.

Although not yet public, the documentary has already been screened internationally and sparked important conversations about the intersection between gender and mobility, domestic workers, and the right to the city. Indeed, Valentina talked about the positive effects the documentary has had so far, such as the case of a domestic worker in Bogotá who now saves two hours daily thanks to improved transit. These are powerful, practical impacts. And even though these changes might occur slowly over time, Valentina remained positive and hopeful, believing through film, storytelling, and persistence, we can shift the way we think about gendered mobilities and make their often invisible travel patterns visible.