It was 1997 and just like my parents, I decided to go to med school. It was a very exciting time for me, I mean think about it, Dr. Cruz. It had a good ring to it, and I really liked learning about the human body, the pathology, but most of all the idea that I could help and cure someone was what really motivated me. I grew up running around my parents consult, wearing scrubs and pretending to be a doctor.
A couple of years in I noticed a big problem working with my parents while at school, I could not deal with patients dying, and especially dealing with the death of an infant. I had a lot of issues sleeping, I was binging on food and rum most of the time, I was miserable. I had to make a big decision and admit that this was not for me. After some months of traveling, soul searching and taking in some great advice I reconnected with my childhood passion, filmmaking. My dad always had a video camera, rented classics and was always making some kind of reference to a dialogue in a movie. We still joke around with lines from “Police Academy”. After telling my parents about what I wanted to do, I left for Spain and later on to New York City to study film and TV and the rest is history. Greatest decision of my life.
Many commercials, short films and documentaries later I find myself co-running Longwood Media with two amazing partners that are related to the medical field as well, our producer Max has a medical simulation background and our cinematographer is an actual MD that fell in love with this craft. So 3 guys that have a passion for storytelling and Medicine? Wut!? What are the odds, right? I get to be involved with healthcare in a different and important way, communicating what a new medical device is all about, or helping to create awareness about diseases.
In our first year of operations we managed to work with many medically-related projects, from a VR platform that is looking to redefine physical therapy, to a short film for a PSA for the Health Commission of our great city. It’s obvious that we had a great time producing this content, we speak the language, we have medical advisors and and in-house MD that can make sure that everything we work on is medically accurate. I look forward to many more projects that have to do with healthcare and digital health, there are so many stories waiting to be told.
Here is a brief demo of our healthcare related work.