Coming back to DVD today, Tuesday, March 3: THE BRIDGE
Eric Steel’s controversial exploration of Golden Gate Bridge suicides made its debut at Tribeca in 2006. It went on to screen at San Francisco, London, Sarajevo, Chicago, and Havana, among others. Initially released on DVD in 2007, Kino Lorber re-releases it now.
After reading that San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was the most popular site in the world for suicide jumpers, Steel set out to document a year of the bridge, setting up cameras more than a mile away and shooting the expanse of the structure for the entirety of 2004. During this period, they caught several suicides and suicide attempts on film, a selection of which are shown here, accompanied by interviews with family members, friends, and witnesses who provide what background they can on why these individuals made the choice to end their own lives. Additionally, they speak with Kevin Hines, who suffers from bipolar disorder and survived an earlier jump – a rare occurrence as noted here. Steel was criticized for lying on his film permit application about the focus of his film, and even more so for including footage of the suicides he captured on film, with some suggesting he would encourage copycats, and others simply calling the project a snuff film in disguise. Despite these charges of voyeurism and exploitation, the film exposes the deep discomfort around the subject of suicide. As strangers are viewed walking along the bridge, the audience watches with dread as individuals linger, fearful that they may hop over the unprotected railing and fling themselves into the water below. While it’s a relief when this doesn’t happen, it’s still an uncomfortable shock every time it does. Steel’s interviews with survivors reveal something of the jumpers’ lives – and suffering – helping to humanize the disturbing statistics and draw awareness to the underlying issues of depression and other psychological problems that our society still doesn’t want to fully face.
what (not) to doc 