Doom Call: Winner of Leafies Short Film Competition 2020
A witty satire on how we are tackling the climate emergency. Rob Stack is the winner of Leafies Short Film Competition 2020. In eight minutes, Stack teaches us how to make meat, use oil and talk – very seriously – about a global emergency.
Instagram cooking video in Doom Call by Robert Stack 2020
“Success is not important. What matters is that they tried.”
– Alex, board member of a Sustainable Committee, Doom Call 2020
A friend, a festival, and facetious large companies inspired Rob Stack, student in applied mathematics at the University of St Andrews, to create Doom Call. The short film makes a parody of the unsustainable behaviour of Western Countries by twisting Instagram cooking videos and illustrating the work of a Sustainable Committee. Alex, board member of the committee, takes climate change – very – seriously. His vision is talk over action. The importance is that people believe that we are taking action, not that we are taking action.
“To make the meat in the intro I had to use tomato passata and tofu, and to film it all I had to use a Go Pro, as that was the best camera I had access to!”
– Robert Stack, director of Doom Call
Doom Call is Stack’s second short film. His first film, HOMEsick was made during the lockdown in spring for St. Andrews Film Festival. Stack says that festivals make him creative – whether it is how to make meat from non-meat or writing a witty, satiric script. The judges of Leafies Short Film Festival 2020 praise it as “all in all, a great film”. The “white boy” and “bottom of the mug” moment are a few of the highlights making Doom Call into the winning.
The biggest of congratulations from the Environment Team to Robert Stack! Through films like Doom Call, we engage people and raise awareness about climate change. We are looking forward to more films shining on these issues. Stack says that he is thankful for the opportunity to make Doom Call and will now move onto working on his dissertation, starting revision and working as an online tutor. He adds: “Hopefully I’ll have time to see friends as well!”.
Watch Doom Call and learn more about the Green Film Festival and the Leafies Short Film Festival.