Category Archives: Releases

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.

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed series tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3: OUT IN THE SILENCE

Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer’s personal confrontation with small town homophobia has been screening extensively at festivals, universities, conferences, and community events since 2009. Among the festivals it’s appeared in are Human Rights Watch, Nashville, Rhode Island, aGLIFF, ImageOUT, Reel Affirmations, and Reeling. The film has also received an Emmy Award.

After longtime partners Wilson and Hamer decided to place their wedding announcement in Wilson’s rural hometown newspaper, the simple act sets off virulent homophobia within the community of Oil City PA, with anti-gay activists like Diane Gramley, the heartless and humorless head of the local American Family Association, denouncing gay marriage. A local resident, Kathy, takes note of the controversy, and, with no one else to turn, reaches out to Wilson to somehow help her her teenage son, CJ, the victim of regular bullying at school. Moved by her plea, the filmmaking pair returns to Oil City to explore why the conservative community has reacted so strongly against their declaration of love and commitment, and why Kathy has had such difficulty finding support for CJ’s plight. Believing that commonality trumps difference, they seek out an illuminating dialogue with opponents, forming an unexpected friendship with an Evangelical preacher who criticizes their union, while they also serve as role models for young CJ, providing compassion and hope that he will make it through this challenging time.

Coming to VOD this coming Tuesday, March 3: ACTRESS

Robert Greene’s look at a woman uncomfortably performing a domestic role debuted at True/False last year. Other festival engagements included Hot Docs, Nantucket, AFI Docs, Art of the Real, Sarasota, DMZ Docs, Camden, CPH:DOX, RIDM, and IDFA, among others.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to Al Jazeera America in two parts on Sunday, March 1 and Sunday, March 8: FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM

Marc Levin’s look at the rise and fall of a crack kingpin debuted at Los Angeles’ Pan African Film Festival. It was also shown in a sneak preview earlier this month in NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series.

I previously wrote about the program here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 24: CODE BLACK

Ryan McGarry’s inside look into America’s health care crisis made its debut at Los Angeles in 2013, where it won the Best Documentary Award. Other fest appearances include the Hamptons, Vancouver, Heartland, Denver, Santa Barbara, Portland, and Cleveland. In addition to a theatrical release, the film has screened at numerous medical schools around the US and in several other countries.

Shot between 2008 and 2012 by McGarry while he was a resident at LA Country General, this film presents a candid, doctor’s-eye-view of the state of emergency medicine from within the trenches. Beginning in the legendary, cramped C-Booth, the ward where many of the tenets of emergency medicine were originated, the film soon follows its young physician subjects as they adjust to the new demands of a state-of-the-art facility, which basically results in a stifling amount of bureaucratic paperwork that takes time away from actual interactions with patients who need them the most. As waiting times to seek medical attention continue to grow, the residents and staff grow frustrated, turning to unorthodox solutions to try to alleviate the problem, with varying levels of success. In focusing his attention on his experiences as a young physician, McGarry offers an unexpected, compelling perspective on the problems plaguing American health care, and, moreso, a provocation that a solution needs to be found, even if he doesn’t pretend to have an all-encompassing panacea himself.