The AA Summer School of Film and Narrative Forensics was back in July 2025! Our starting point was a letter American land artist Robert Smithson wrote to his partner Nancy Holt during his time in Rome, in which he proclaimed: Rome is still falling. Inspired by this notion, we will reflect on Smithson's letter – not by traveling to Rome, but by reconstructing the city through its rich cinematic history, where it has been repeatedly represented and reimagined.
The space in film is rarely what it seems. Montage, the powerful cinematic device, does not simply enable travel through time and place but serves as an architectural tool for constructing spaces of varying scales – from rooms, houses and streets to entire cities.
Join us for an intensive nine-day summer workshop at the AA School in Bedford Square that explores architecture, film and narrative forensics. Through film analysis, model-making and experimental filmmaking, we reconstruct a different city every year in fragments, drawing inspiration from its rich cinematic history, iconic spaces and evolving urban identity. Among others, our study will focus on: Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948), Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962), L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962), Roma (Federico Fellini, 1972), The Belly of an Architect (Peter Greenaway, 1987), The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013) and The Salt of Life (Gianni Di Gregorio, 2011).
Film Workshop Visiting School: Rebuilding Rome was preceded by the Film Architecture Forum from 1 - 5 August 2025, a separate five-day intensive learning experience. This festival-style event offers lectures, screenings and discussions led by prominent filmmakers, architects and academics. Participants attending both the Film Architecture Forum and the Workshop will gain a deeper understanding of the crossover between architecture and the moving image, enriching their creative and critical approaches to both disciplines. 50% scholarships on Film Architecture Forum Visiting School fees are available if you attend both.
PROMINENT FEATURES OF THE WORKSHOP / SKILLS DEVELOPED
- Filmmaking and mini-set building (physical and/or digital)
- Model-making through plaster casting or digital techniques of fragments of Rome
- Scanning technology and forensic space reconstruction
- Editing, storytelling, and character development
- Industry insights and CV building
Participants contribute to the short film Rebuilding Rome, with possible screenings at the AA School and international cultural institutions.
Rebuilding Rome included a curator-guided tour of the Cast Courts at The Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as a look at select works of Piranesi by special arrangement in the Prints and Drawings Study Room. During the programme, students will have the opportunity to return the V&A individually and immerse themselves in study amongst the architectural casts and fragments of Rome.
The workshop is also supported by the British School at Rome.
Partners: Mylomark Production and Publishing, and other media and cultural partners to be announced.
METHOD
- Film Analysis: Watching and discussing films where Rome plays a central role
- Cast Model-Making and/or Digital Reconstruction: Creating plaster casts of architectural fragments or digital models for animation
- Narrative Forensics: Selecting and reconstructing spaces from films both physically and digitally
- Storytelling: Re-sequencing developed spaces to tell new narratives
- Group or Individual Projects: Experimenting with different techniques in filming, reconstructing space and narrative creation
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Limbo Architecture Lab
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Reimagining the Space.Body
AA Summer School Latin America
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BambooLab
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