“Moving away from a sense of cultures as pure spaces”: An interview with Deborah Shaw

“Universal” is always a loaded term as it inevitably fails to consider the experience of many people, which it dispenses with if they provide an exception. Yes, vast numbers of people throughout the world have access to film, and film watching forms a regular part of their leisure time/education. However, a large number of people living in poverty and/or in remote areas do not have access to film, or to the technology required to watch film. Many cannot afford to buy cinema tickets, or cable film channels, so may watch pirated copies of films on DVD, with piracy rife in many countries. Having said this, film along with television programmes are the most widely consumed art forms.