In the middle of the Pandemic, I was asked by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to create a PSA that would expose the quiet violence of civil justice—the everyday injustices affecting millions—and ignite a call for change.
Narrator Lamorne Morris and other inspiring Americans take us on a tour of the sad landscape of civil justice in the USA and introduce a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that recommends ways to make justice an accessible reality for many more Americans in need. (4:36)
Role Director, Co-Writer
For American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Date 2020
Type strategy, research, engagement, content, campaign
Social Media Cut
Most of Us - 1:00
How do you draw attention to an invisible crisis?
Wage theft, loss of health benefits, eviction, family separation…these are just some of the countless civil justice issues affecting more than 150 million Americans every year. Due to a widespread lack of access to civil legal services, very few of these issues result in just outcomes. This “civil justice gap” is a major contributing force to structural inequality and systemic oppression in this country, yet it goes largely unnoticed compared to highly visible issues like criminal justice or police brutality.
In the middle of the Pandemic, I was approached by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to create a short PSA that could help broad audiences understand the personal and societal nature of this crisis, and introduce the Academy’s report of recommendations for how to fix it.
Voices in the Landscape
Inspired by experimental documentaries that reveal larger social problems through eyewitness narration and haunting footage of landscapes, we mobilized legal aid organizations around the country to help us find litigants who could tell their stories about unjust legal hardships, and deployed cinematographers in their locations to capture the geographic diversity of the crisis.
To connect these individual experiences to the national story, we recruited Emmy-winning actor Lamorne Morris, fresh off of his starring debut in the Hulu series Woke, to explain the crisis from the friendly perspective of a legal aid worker who wants to help.
Getting it Right
The PSA launched with the release of the Academy’s report to great acclaim. Our client was very proud of this being the first time the 200-year-old Academy has ever told “the human story” about one of their research projects, saying that the narrator and interviewees we’d selected were the “perfect” voices. He received multiple praises from folks in the legal services field that we’d gotten the issue “right.” Our scripting process also helped them to take a new approach during a complete rewrite of the report.
This launch event featured Co-chairs Kenneth Frazier (Merck and Co.), John Levi (Sidley Austin LLP), and Martha Minow (Harvard Law School) in a conversation moderated by David Rubenstein (The Carlyle Group).
The event discussed "Measuring Civil Justice for All: What do we know? What do we need to know? How can we know it?," a new Academy whitepaper that provides a blueprint for the collection of data about civil justice activity in the United States.
Credits
Producer Annika Iltis
Concept Annika Iltis, John Moody
Narration Lamorne Morris
Editor Maya Santos
Music + Sound Colin Yarck