Meats
2021 · 11m
Directed by Ashley Williams
Tones: contemplative, humorous, provocative
After her lifelong-vegan friend starts eating meat during pregnancy, a woman confronts her own dietary ethics in a sharp, funny short about the morals of meat-eating.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects this to be a preachy vegan-guilt tract, so Williams flips it into a comedy about friendship and contradiction that actually respects both sides—subversive not because it attacks meat-eating, but because it refuses the moral simplicity the premise promises.
A formally composed character study that locates itself in a lineage of intimate comedies about ideology meeting lived experience; the restraint in the filmmaking mirrors the protagonist's own careful negotiation between belief and acceptance.
The entire film hinges on a single choice—letting the humor land in the awkward silences and sideways glances between the two women rather than spelling out the conflict—which transforms what could've been a sermon into something genuinely human and funny.
Reviews
Inspired to create a short film exploring the ethics of meat-eating after her friend – a lifelong vegan – began eating meat in her pregnancy, Ashley Williams’ Meats is a rich and intriguing short set to make you question your own dietary requirements. Citing Camas Davis’ memoir Killing It: An Educat
Williams expertly sidesteps this by ensuring her film is rich in humour, sliding her message subtlety into our headspace, instead of hammering it home. With our love for storytelling, and its distinct, impactful narrative – it felt impossible to ignore.