Istanbul on Film: Imagining the City, Envisioning Its Future

This workshop invites participants to re-see Istanbul and collectively imagine its future, presenting cinema as a tool for reflecting on the city, examining our relationship with it, and generating alternative scenarios.

Following a short presentation focused on a selection of Istanbul portraits depicted in cinema from the past to the present, a conversation will unfold exploring the significance of revisiting and probing this cinematic image archive today. Participants will examine how these images can be invoked to understand the present and envision the future.

At the same time, through structured games and creative prompts, participants will produce their own images of Istanbul to come. In this sense, the workshop constitutes a collective exercise in thinking and imagining, bringing together cinema and urban studies in a shared space of reflection.