Social Realism In film

The style of a social realism film is very often found being naturalistic; keep the film as true life as possible. These type films usually address the working class citizens facing a numerous amount of issues in their day to day life; these issues may include depression, drug abuse, unemployment and stress.

Films in the social realism genre mainly focus on an individual person/character and generally have a short, storyline to it. For example in “Half Nelson” the main character is going through drug and alcohol abuse, the audience would watch this film and could relate to this; especially if they themselves have been affected by drug abuse. Compared to Hollywood or Bollywood films, a social realism film issues would be addressed in a way that is true to real life. Whereas Hollywood and Bollywood films may be over exaggerated, and the audience may not be able to relate to the film in the same way.

A big issue for directors when creating a social realism film is the technical elements. Using a Long take can help the audience watching the film to get a better sense of realism, as it is more believable, for example in the opening of Nil By Mouth it is set in a bar where there is normally a lot of background noise because it’s a very busy environment. A long shot helps to create this and also the audience can feel as if they are there in the bar whilst the film is happening around them. All technical elements have to be realistic, or else the film could lose the nature of being real. For example, if the lighting was dark and gloomy the audience might think that they were watching a horror film. Depending on the directors view on the film, the lighting can be dark and gloomy, but he/ she would have to ensure that the film in still being naturalistic. To get the film perfect the director would have to consider every bit of detail, and it would include researching locations for sets. If not the director could be criticized by the niche market audience as well as a wider main stream audience that he or she might be targeting, for not being true to the real life. The film would normally be low-budgeted this way the director can keep everything simple and naturalistic, for example using real locations is cheaper than creating a studio set.

Social realism in films first started in the late 19^th century and has continued to grow, although it isn’t as popular as Hollywood or even Bollywood films. Many issues from the world’s history such as the many wars to the different crimes today can be explored with in social realism films, as they have affect everyone in some way. These issues are often made publicly aware through the media and have an influence on the community we live in.

Some examples of social realism films include: Sweet Sixteen, Ladybird Ladybird, Raining Stones, Kes and others by Ken Loach. Also Family and In This World by Michael Winterbottom are also social realism films, along with many others by other directors. The social realism films all have one thing in common, which is being as realistic as possible a keeping to the issues we face in everyday life.