Thinking in and through frames

The Film as Method workshop series was developed and delivered by Amal Barre in collaboration with Tuna Taşan-Kok for students enrolled in Contemporary Approaches in Property-led Planning from October – December of 2025. The course is part of the core curriculum of the Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Amsterdam. The three-part pilot series was designed to move students beyond the classroom and conventional academic engagement toward direct encounters with people, place, and everyday life. It invited students to critically engage with their surroundings and reflect on their own role in shaping perception and meaning, shifting the focus from the traditional subject–expert research dynamic to a participatory, iterative approach.

Grounded in the tangible, everyday spaces where theory meets practice, the series unfolded in the streets, neighborhoods, and shared environments where the mundane, the extraordinary, and the in-between coexist. Through collaborative film projects, a group of 88 students stepped outside their comfort zones, experimented with new methods, and developed attentive, reflective ways of engaging with the world around them. By integrating observation, imagination, and technical practice, the workshops modeled a research approach that is both analytical and experiential.