Sitting in front of a window that places these conversations within the city and festival that contextualises them, the invited filmmakers play a game where they pick out papers with questions on topics under discussion in contemporary film culture. These questions guide a conversation that is otherwise unbounded, a window into what insiders from the filmmaking world have to say informally to each other.

Inspired by Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, our new original series C for Coffee provides a stage to a conversation that is free and unrestrained. C for Coffee, but also C for Cinema or Conversations.

The first episode, made in collaboration with Porto/Post/Doc, was filmed during the 6th edition of the film festival, which took place in November 2019 in Porto. At the festival, we invited Ute Aurand, Valérie Masadian, Gurcan Keltek and Ben Rivers to, on a coffee break at the cafe A Brasileira, talk to each other about the state of cinema. Their informal, behind the scenes, conversations with one another, are an insider’s peek on thoughts not usually made public.

We want to find out: what do filmmakers think about the current state of cinema?

Is cinema dead? In the first scene of this episode, Ute and Valerie talk about Portuguese cinema, motherhood, whether cinema is dying and what’s its role in the context of (last year’s) riots and revolutions. Over their discussion, Valérie states she believes cinema is not dead, but watching a film in theatre is becoming uncommon these days. “Cinema in theatre is something dying. And I think we just have to take over the cinema ourselves, as filmmakers.” - says Valérie.

It’s a known fact that streaming platforms keep growing whilst independent theatres struggle; remote areas often have no operating cinemas, as these keep moving into the shopping centres of larger cities. But facing these difficulties, Ute remembers the importance of watching a film together in the darkness. How many times have you gone to the cinema last year?

Gürcan and Ben meet and talk in person for the first time in this conversation. In questions about cinema, they discuss over whether cinema is dead. As every art form, like music or painting, that keeps being told it is dead, cinema keeps reinventing itself. Portuguese cinema is brought up in conversation; Gürcan mentions Manoel de Oliveira, and Ben says he is inspired by the work of Cordeiro & Reis. “Portuguese cinema has had quite an effect on me.” - Ben says with the four films of Cordeiro & Reis in mind.

They reflect on the speed at which we consume cinema and how we move from one film to another without allowing some time to reflect. “What is poisoning cinema is the obsession with the new, everybody is obsessed with the new and consuming it really quickly.” - says Gürcan.

In 2020 we continue to amplify creative voices. Throughout the year, we will be travelling to film festivals around Europe to film the next episodes of C for Coffee. Where should we go next? In the meantime, follow us on our social media to keep up to date on the other stories.