Why?

On the 30th of July 2007, we lost two legends of cinema; Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. In a mere 24 hours the world of cinema was dealt a blow of immeasurable loss – and a lot of us here, in the Maldives, didn’t even notice. A lot more, still, hadn’t seen a single frame of film by either of the two remarkable filmmakers.

Bergman

Those of us who did notice felt that it was time we, as film enthusiasts, did something other than just sit around and discuss our thoughts on great filmmakers. Not to drive home the loss – but to showcase what these maestros, and other such greats, have given us.

Antonioni

We made a few calls and, on the 18th of August 2007 (having already, mostly, cast our votes), took to a coffee and discussed, for a little over two hours, what we could do – interspersed were discussions on our favourite films, filmmakers, etc – but we did manage to come up with one solid, coherent thought… or two.

Cinema Paradisio and Il Postiono, which is better? Does it matter?

Yes, Il Postino is better than Cinema Paradiso – arguably. AND Baiskoaf is a way of taking our ‘coffee conversations’ to a more public, wider setting, thus, allowing us to share our passion and enthusiasm with a group larger than just the *cough* of us – and hopefully change our mindset on cinema from passive entertainment to something that is engaging, captivating and intelligent.

So we begin...