The document discusses the history of social realism films in Britain from the 1930s to the present. It notes that British documentaries of the 1930s and 1940s influenced later films by combining objective perspectives with studio resources to appeal to mass audiences. Films of the 1950s and 1960s depicted ordinary British people and addressed social issues through works influenced by Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave. More recent British films have examined the decline of industry and traditional regional/class identities against a backdrop of increasing consumerism.