“Today’s frontiers are not at the edge of the known world, but at the heart of global cities” [1].

Two International Summer Schools entitled “Frontier Zones,” carried out as collaborative projects by one Brazilian and three German universities, highlight the value of experience-based learning approaches and the method of documentary filmmaking with the focus on the audiovisual without explanatory words. To find out what frontier zones in modern urban areas are, we explored the urbanism applying the method of documentary filmmaking as a medium to reveal new insights and readings of the contemporary city. These case studies emphasize new forms of transdisciplinary research on the urbanism of global cities.

In analyzing and comparing the conceptual framework of the two Summer Schools with different schedules and different ways in which the participants were asked to work, the author demonstrates the potential benefits of the binational and transdisciplinary working environment when seeking answers to urban “frontier zones” challenges.