Jumping off the Bridge

This weekend I encountered two reports about a new documentary called The Bridge, one on the ABC program 20/20, and another in Sunday's New York Times.

The creator of The Bridge positioned cameras, some were mobile, while others were fixed, and filmed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco from Jan 1, 2004 - Dec 31, 2004. Each camera was positioned one mile away from the bridge. During this time they captured the suicides of 24 people. Each of these people fell over 200 ft, going about 75 miles per hour. The time from the jump off point to hitting the water was 4 seconds. The film maker, Eric Steel, wanted to capture these deaths in an effort to raise awareness about suicide and mental illness. The documentary weaves footage of these suicidal leaps, with commentary by family members, who essentially talk about their lost loved one, and the impact of suicide on their lives.

This documentary has brought up all sorts of ethical questions about filming such a thing, and then presenting it to mass audiences. One problem is that Steele didn't tell family members he had this footage while interviewing them. He only revealed it later, and showed each and every one of them what he had captured on tape. Also, it raises questions about the "objective" stance of the documentarian, begging the question, how can you just stand there and film while someone is getting ready to jump off this bridge? Steel says that many times camera operators called the emergency hotline to alert someone that an individual was getting ready to kill themselves. He says they prevented 6 deaths that year by doing so.

The New York Times article likens this documentary to snuff films, capturing the deaths of people on camera, while placing the viewer in a particularly terrible voyeuristic position. They don't buy Steel's intent, and argue that with films of this nature the wide gulf (in this case, 1 mile) between viewer and the viewed can never be, well, "bridged."

Of course I want to see it. I think it's a fascinating concept. Apparantly more suicides occur here every year than at any other public monument. People have been urging city officials to erect a suicide prevention wall to make it more difficult to jump. One person actually survived an intentional fall in 2000, and is now the biggest anti-suicide advocate, and instrumental in trying to get city officials to build the wall.

jb