Patient films / Documentary
This ongoing series, produced with BBDO New York since 2003, brings audiences face to face with the voices of people living with ALS. Each film is a candid portrait of a patient, their passions, their family, and the people who love them. Created for live events as well as online viewing, the series has helped raise millions, shift perceptions, and build momentum toward a future without ALS.
Agency: BBDO New York
Patient testimonials
Kerry
Sterling
Tara
View the No BS About HS brand website
Created for Humira’s NO BS ABOUT HS campaign, this series focuses on the painful and often misunderstood condition Hidradenitis Suppurativa. In their own voices, Tara, Sterling, and Kerry describe the emotional and physical toll of living with HS and push past stigma with honesty and clarity. The “HS BS” logo was 3D printed as an object they could hold, confront, and throw, turning frustration into visible moments of empowerment and defiance.
Humira / AbbVie / Publicis New York & Digitas Philadelphia
Patient testimonial
Created for Enhertu’s IN HER2 campaign, Juanita shares her experience living with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer. From the fear and shock of a stage four diagnosis, she finds strength through education, self advocacy, family, and patient communities. She offers practical strategies for preparing for doctor visits, navigating treatment schedules, and moving forward.
Agency / Omnicom
View the IN HER2 Support Resources website
Disease awareness
Devon Still built his reputation as an NFL player with grit and power, yet nothing prepared him for the fight he and his daughter Leah faced when she was diagnosed with high risk neuroblastoma. Created with Omnicom for United Therapeutics, the film follows their journey from a 50/50 prognosis through experimental treatment and survivorship. Devon and Leah share their story to offer guidance to other families facing childhood cancer.
Agency / Omnicom
View the Neuroblastoma Info website
Brand documentary
This short film for Ozarka Water celebrates the connections and traditions that keep a community strong. Set in Rotan, a small West Texas town where everybody does everything, it follows the Yellowhammer Marching Band. In a place where football is king, the band brings the town together and reminds us that greatness is about stepping up and showing up.
Ozarka / Nestlé Waters / Omnicom
Awareness film
Created for AARP Foundation’s campaign supporting older adults facing poverty, hunger, and isolation, this film brings attention to struggles that are often unseen. Through real testimony and an appearance by Dr. Maya Angelou, it moves from quiet hardship toward a message about dignity, connection, and resilience.
Agency / Grey New York
APPROACH
Healthcare advertising carries a particular kind of weight. The stakes are high, the stories are personal, and the emotions are real.
I love making movies. Movies are interesting. I think of every commercial, patient video, physician interview, and disease awareness campaign as moviemaking.
For more than twenty years, I have worked with agencies and brands to make films that are visually rich, clear in their message, and emotionally honest. I help people living with all kinds of medical conditions open up on camera. The conditions change. The human conversation does not.
What comes through is not always heavy. It can be funny, reflective, surprising, or raw. People are complicated, imperfect, courageous, and full of grit. A diagnosis is part of their story, but it is never the whole person or the whole story.
Let’s make a movie.
ABOUT
Ben Starkman is a New York City based director and cinematographer. For more than twenty years, he has worked in advertising, collaborating with agencies and corporate clients to tell stories across commercials, branded films, documentary, healthcare, technology, and industrial work.
His work includes patient testimonials, disease awareness campaigns, pharmaceutical advertising, brand films, KOL videos, and short form documentary, as well as commercials and films for companies far beyond healthcare. He has directed actors and worked with patients, physicians, caregivers, families, executives, and people appearing on camera for the first time. His agency collaborations include BBDO, Omnicom, Publicis, Digitas, and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Ben has received three Clio Awards, including Healthcare and Sports Clios, a One Show shortlist, and other industry recognition. He has created films for the Museum of Modern Art. He served as cinematographer and producer of On the Road with Judas, which premiered in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
CONTACT