UC Riverside Healthcare PSA Featuring Angela Lewis

Video Production Project Description

The University of California, Riverside School of Medicine Center for Healthy Communities (CHC) contacted Ezra Productions for video production after watching the award-winning health public service announcement we created for Inland Empire Health Plan. The Center primarily serves black, Latino and Native American community members in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in Southern California. These communities were disproportionately affected by COVID, and many suffered from comorbidities that made them more vulnerable. At the time UC Riverside approached us, the world was at the tail end of COVID, so the Center’s primary concern wasn’t getting people vaccinated anymore. The goal was now to encourage community members to continue taking care of themselves and putting their health first so that the community could come out of COVID stronger than ever before.

Our Concept and Approach

The client wanted the videos to convey the importance of maintaining one’s health and taking personal accountability, using the toll of COVID-19 as a starting point. In the video, this message comes through the voices of a select few speakers, each a member or leader of the community:

• Rev. Barry Settle, a Pastor
• Dr. Columbus Batiste, an interventional cardiologist
• Angela Lewis, actress in FX’s Snowfall, mental health advocate, and mother 
• Antoinette “Toni” Harris, football player for Cali War
• Joyce, mother and grandmother

In the video, these speakers feel like a counsel of wise voices. This is a community speaking to itself. Their overall messages are:

• COVID was a wake-up call for Black and Brown communities
• There is a history of mistrust and judgment relating to health
• Our health is in our own hands
• We need our community to be strong
• We can’t afford to lose any more
• Our health matters

The tone of the video is heartfelt, personal, and intimate. The speakers have gravitas, but still feel connected and relatable. Their words come from a place of love for the community, even when giving advice and motivating people to change.