CIARA BYRNE
AMPLE MEDIA
CANDIDATE NUMBER 9045
Social realism is a naturalistic viewpoint of the realism of the hardship everyday issues. The term usually refers to urban areas. While cinema has experienced all of the fluctuations in fortune of Hollywood's first export territory, social realism has been Britain's outlook to cinema and issues that audiences from Britain can vividly relate too.
Filmmakers such as Ken Loach, Shane Meadows and Mike Leigh are well known for their role in directing social realism films and tv series’.
RAYMOND WILLIAMS- DEFINES SOCIAL REALISM
He argues that social realism is grounded in the contemporary scene in terms of setting, characters and social issues. Such as violence, domestic abuse and drugs. Willams also claims that social realist directors try and encorporate life at the time, giving the audience a glimps into the issues that people face. Social realism indulges into containing an element of social extension by which previously under represented groups in society are highlighted and become represented. During a social realism creation of film, the artist contains an intent; whether this being political or artistic. When this occurs the film becomes secular. Meaning that social realist films are about logic and reasons, not mystical or religious underlay.
Codes and conventions of social realism are location shooting (ie not studio), wide shots, non professional actors, sometimes an improvised scripts, humour and seriousness, the erosion of regional identities, social issues are widely explored via emotional and dramatic indivdual stories and finally trumph over adversity.
Social realism films portray life factors and attitudes which occur in that time period. They often represent working class characters living through a struggle and generally exhibit them as a protagonist. Often, the directors of social realism films normally want to depict a type of social injustice: such as economic hardship, discrimination or political justice.
MY NAME IS JOE - KEN LOACH FILM
A 1998 British social realism film directed by Ken Loach, staring Peter Mullan as Joe Kavanagh, an unemployed recovering alcoholic in Glasgow who meets and falls in love with a health worker. The title is a reference to the Alcoholic Anonymous meetings, as portrayed by the films opening scene.
The film was filmed in the council estates of Glasgow and filling in roles were local residents. Many of whom have criminal and drugs pasts. The actors remained to have their natural Scottish accent; this means that the Scottish accents towards the American audience was in subtitles as it was unfamiliar. Ken Loach has a policy that actors should speak in their natural accent on film, and his early film Kes faced a similar problem with the South Yorkshire dialect.
By including the locals who have been commited of crimes and drug abuse it adds the realist element to the film. The film is based around events that happen to people in terms the AA meeting, being unemployed, recovering alcoholic and falling in love.