Social Realism in films is representative of real life, with all its difficulties. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films within the social realist genre are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the daily life of a working-class citizen. The Social Realism Genre was born in the 1960s in an era called British New Wave. Amongst the many films that emerged during the new wave of social realism, there are dozens of examples that are still popular to this day such as Look Back in Anger, A Taste of Honey, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, This Sporting Life, Billy Liar, Cathy Come Home, Up the Junction and Room at The Top.
I, Daniel Blake is a social realism film written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach. Dave Jones is the actor of Daniel Blake, who had a severe heart attack and has been denied employment and support allowances despite him being declared unfit to work. This representative of social realism as this could happen in day-to-day life of any working-class citizen in the UK. Hayley Squires co-stars as Katie, a struggling single mother whom Daniel befriends. In 2019 there were approximately 2.9 million lone parent families in the UK. According to the Office for National Statistics this number has not changed much since 2008 when there were 2.8 million single parent households. Katie is representative of all the struggles these families had to go through.
Shane Meadows is well known for his films which focus upon the social realism genre. his most famous social realism film is This is England (2006). This Is England is a 2006 British dram and realism film written and directed by Shane Meadows. The story centres on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates how their subculture, which has its roots in 1960s West indies culture, especially ska, soul, and reggae music, became influenced by the far-right, especially white nationalists and white supremacists which led to divisions within the skinhead scene. Its set just after the Falkland's war and shows the relationship between Shaun played by Thomas Turgoose and the skinheads. However, Shane has directed other films such as Twenty-Four seven and Dead Man's Shoes, This is England is his most memorable.
Ken Loach is a big name in the social realism genre and has many films within this genre. a few examples are Looking for Eric, Sweet Sixteen, Kes, My Name is Joe and many more. Wikipedia quotes Loach 'is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs and for his beliefs on socialism, which are evident in his film treatment of issues such as unemployment, labour rights and homelessness.
Grainy visual representations often shot in black and white anchor the problems and difficulties the characters are enduring. Low production values typify social realism, but some were ultimately distributed in the US in the hope that American audiences would buy into the British cultural representations. Handheld cameras were often used to show realism and the films often experimented with focus, types of shot, camera angle, editing, lighting and contrast. Stereotypically, institutional factors that underpin pure contemporary social realism include low production values, limited distribution (as with Fish Tank, 2009 this can mean only 40 screens) and often made with the assistance of Film4 and the UK Film Council (now the BFI) e.g. This is England (2006) and looking for Eric (2009). Shifty (2008) was made with the assistance of the Film London Microwave Scheme where the filmmakers agreed to keep the production costs under £100,000. As of writing (February 2012) this scheme still exists with the increased budget of £120,000. Social realism tends to attract younger, up and coming directors and often is distributed by small independent distributors like Optimum, Metrodome, Artificial Eye and Momentum. Directors like Shane Meadows (This is England, Somers Town), Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) and Noel Clarke (Kidulthood script and Adulthood writer and director) have shot to prominence working within the genre.
Typically, original social realism was set in the industrial north but occasionally travelled south, as in the 1968 film, Up the Junction set in west London and south London. Fundamentally Up the Junction encapsulates what social realism was about – social class, alienation, frustration and fighting the system. Binary oppositions of social class were and are common with the 1950s/60s social realist films, which deliberately represent the different layers and divisions in post-war, industrial Britain. This was a time when the country was rebuilding and the manufacturing industry was at the heart of this process with slum clearance also high on the agenda, new homes and a new structuring of society post-1945 Welfare State provision under a new Labour government.
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