Ken Loach is a British television and film director who uses his anger towards exploitative institutions and politicans to convey his socialist ideologies within his films. He talks about issues such as poverty, homelessness and labour rights which is quite controversial with people especially conservatives. His most famous pieces of work include Cathy Come Home made in 1966 which was part of the BBC series called 'The Wednesday play'. This told the story of a couple, Cathy and Reg who faced homelessness and poverty and really appealed to many people as they too were affected by this story and led to the development of a charity called Shelter, helping the homeless. Other films of his include Kes released in 1969 and I, Daniel Blake which was released in 2016. Some of his films have been really successful and he's won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for I, Daniel Blake and Jimmy's Hall along with winning multiple BAFTA's.
His socialist ideas took him further and made him join the labour party first in the 1960s before leaving in 1990 and then rejoining in 2017 to express his views more. He also supported the trade unionist and socialist coalition which shows how strongly he felt towards these specific issues.
Loach uses a lot of medium shots to make the audience feel like their sitting directly across from the character which makes sense as Loach likes to focus on personal relationships between the characters in the films he makes. He often includes humour in his films to add to the reality he portrays in them as well. Ken likes to have ordinary people in his films that aren't necessarily professionals to capture the realistic elements of everyday life which he uses in his films and also likes to cut down the script before he even starts directing often not giving the full script to the actors at all to make the performance more authentic and look natural.
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