What is social-realism?

Social-realism films are very often about working-class life in Britain and give us a story that many of us find it easier to relate compared to a hollywood blcokbuster. There are often very blunt and rarely have a happy endings; it shows us a slice of life. They usually have a low-budget so don't have special effects and the equipment mainstream films have. However, the resources they use are often effective as the genre is very popular in Britain. In recent times, social-realism films have been dominated by Ken Loach with films such as 'Sweet Sixteen' and Shane Meadows with his infamous 'This is England'.