Diversity in Clinical Trials

Over 70% of clinical trial participants are white, which is not reflective of our actual population. This documentary is the first of many strategic initiatives Merck began pursuing in hopes to minimize this huge representation disparity in 2023.

Erin Ryan was hired to helm this story-made initiative for her expertise in listening, witnessing, and centering human authentic experiences. The studio balanced the hiring team's hope toward a future with more equitable representation with the unvarnished truth of the historical and deep mistrust underlying and justifying the divide.

Cinematic influences included Ava Duverney's 13th, Questlove's Summer of Soul, and the motif of mirrors as a metaphor for representation and centering symbolic to this story's context.