Paris - 5 November 2020
1. Wide pan of shut Shakespeare and Company bookstore
2. Close of Shakespeare portrait with inscription reading (English) "While thy booke doth live and we have wits to read and praise to give thou art still alive."
3. Close of photo of American poet Walt Whitman in the shop window
4. Wide pan of staff preparing book orders
5. Mid of books ready to be sent
6. Mid of a woman stamping a book
7. Close up of Shakespeare and Company book stamp
8. Mid of staff preparing orders
9. Wide of Sylvia Whitman, shop owner
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sylvia Whitman, owner of Shakespeare and Company bookstore:
"We've been minus 80 per cent since the first confinement, since march. So at this point we used all our savings, we have applied for and received quite a lot of support from the French government but we are just concerned about the future because we fear that we are probably going to have another year of difficulty."
11. Mid of book entitled 'James Joyce and the matter of Paris'
12. Mid of a book shelf
13. Wide of bookstore
14. Wide pan of bookstore with bed in corner
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sylvia Whitman, owner of Shakespeare and Company bookstore:
"I understand why people would be using large online platforms more at the moment. They offer a good service and a lot of us are stuck at home, I understand that. But it comes at a cost and I find it really tiring that it seems to be the bigger you are, the more you can ignore laws, you can avoid taxes, you can find loopholes, should we say, and the smaller you are, the more expensive and the more complicated things are. "
16. Wide pan of library
17. Mid of books
18. Close up of George Orwell's '1984'
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Sylvia Whitman, owner of Shakespeare and Company bookstore:
"Something I love about bookshops is that you are alone, you can be alone amongst others. It's a sense of solitude and gathering that comes together, and there are spaces the provide that and there are so many other independent bookshops and places that provide this but I am just giving this example. I think that this is really valuable in society and I do think it's a political choice we have to ask oneself: one thing might be cheaper but is it cheaper in the long run?"
20. Close up of old typewriter
21. Wide of bookstore
The owner of an iconic book store in Paris has spoken of the dire situation the shop faces amid the coronavirus pandemic and a second lockdown in the city.
Shakespeare & Co, which is over 100 years old and was once frequented by writers such as F Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce, is one of a large number of small businesses whose future looks grim.
Sales are down 80% and owner Sylvia Whitman says the store is even more vulnerable as it faces ruthless competition from online giants selling books to people who are isolating.
Online platforms have seen a huge increase in their revenues amid the pandemic.
In order to increase the shop's online presence Whitman wants to recreate a network of 'Friends of Shakespeare and Company,' inspired by the initiative of the book shop founder and publisher Sylvia Beach, who during the Great Depression appealed to her friends to keep the bookshop running.
"The bigger you are, the more you can ignore laws, you can avoid taxes, you can find loopholes should we say and the smaller you are, the more expensive and the more complicated things are," she says.
COVID-19 is not the only reason Parisian retail outlets have struggled; the city also suffered economic damage after the Yellow Vest protests, and a fire at the adjacent Notre Dame cathedral.
And the loss is not just financial.
"Something I love about bookshops is that you are alone, you can be alone amongst others. It's a sense of solitude and gathering that comes together," she says.
"I think that this is really valuable in a society and I do think it's a political choice we have to ask oneself: one thing might be cheaper but is it cheaper in the long run."
