Sounds fascinating

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/artic ... 0000000001

Documenting Despair

'The Bridge' Explores Suicide on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

(April 27) - Film director Eric Steel set up two cameras on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and kept them rolling from dawn to dusk every day in 2004.

He captured all but one of the 24 suicides that took place that year from the beautiful landmark, which happens to be the world's most-popular suicide spot.

Steel's documentary, "The Bridge," will premiere tonight at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. The film also chronicles the struggles that preceded the suicides and their impact on the friends and family members.

"I think for the families," Steel said, "every second after this happens, the ripple keeps going and they keep looking back and saying did we miss something?"

Philip Manikow, a 22-year-old with a history of mental illness, was one of the people whose death was documented in Steel's film. His parents said that he had planned his suicide for months.

"He knew he was loved," said Manikow's father, Wally Manikow. "He knew he had everything. He could do anything, and yet he felt trapped. That was the only way he could get free."

Steel says his purpose behind making the film is to "make people look harder at the world … around them." While making the film, he discovered that it was difficult to guess who was going to commit suicide just by looking at someone.

"It was hard to tell from the outside who was thinking about jumping," he said. "The contrasts were extraordinary. One man was pacing back and forth. One guy was laughing and talking on his cell phone. He puts down the cell phone and boom. It is very hard to make a profile."

Suicide prevention workers disagree about whether the movie will make the problem better or worse.

"This film is making people aware of suicide and that is important, because as a culture we have managed to ignore it," said Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention.

Other experts worry about copycat suicides.

"The concern here if you are going to show a film, even a documentary, on this kind of act is that it will lead to other people committing suicide by jumping," said Dr. Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Some wonder whether the filmmakers could have stopped the jumpers. Steel says that his team always called authorities when it saw someone preparing to jump, saving at least six people, including a crystal meth addict.

Steel wants a barrier to be erected on the bridge to make it more difficult for people to jump.

"If you're able to save one life or 24 lives, whatever the number in between, you know, that would be significant. It would be significant in all the lives that they touch," he said.

Because the vast majority of the 38,000 people who kill themselves in the United States each year do so behind closed doors, Steel acknowledged that "it can't end at the barrier."

"The solution is finding a bigger and more open way to talk about suicide and finding a broader response to suicide prevention in general," he said.


04-27-06 11:14 EDT


Copyright 2006 ABCNEWS.com

Its actually here at Tribeca. Playing tonight, tomorrow, Tuesday, and Friday and Saturday of next week. Looks interesting.

It could border on exploitation.

It could unless the last sentence of the article you posted is true. It could be another Dr. Death/Faces of Death or whatever that was. I'd like to think this really was invested in opening up healthy dialogue. I went to a school with an apparently high suicide rate. Not when I was there. My senior year (in high school) there was one. Then I left the school so I only heard later that there were a few more in the following years.

Technically everything like this *could* inspire copy0catting, but I'd rather think that no one who isn't already considering would be effected in that way, and people who are, its an issue that needs to be addressed. I agree with you movies aren't miracle tricks, so I doubt its persuasive enough to stimulate conversation (or we would have heard more from the health and therapy fields about it by now). So maybe if its ineffective than it wasn't very well done. Exploitive? Maybe. Sometimes I think such subjects are crafted better when they're not documentaries actually.

I was thinking it seemed rather exploitative myself but I could be wrong.

To me filmmaking can accomplish one of three goals: to entertain, explain or to make a point/accomplish something.

Films like Lucky Number Slevin for example (I really liked the film) are strictly for entertainment. Then you have films like Fahrenheit 9/11 or any number of documentaries that while on the surface are somewhat entertaining, their real purpose is to make a statement (in that case biased greatly) or accomplish a goal.

So the question is where does this film fall? Well, certainly I hope it won't be entertaining as I wouldn't want it to create a mockery out of something as unfortunate as people dieing.

Informative? Perhaps but what is there to inform on other then exploitative purposes of the obvious implications of suicide. Its a sad tale but we've heard it before, sure put it on a grander scale as jumping off the bridge and it may become easier to discuss, but unless it provides in depth case studies and a format for discussion there isn't much to accomplish there.

And finally to accomplish something, but once again unless it delves deeply into personal histories, which could also be exploitative and hurtful to the families, how can it accomplish anything.

So basically, what I'm saying is, I don't think its a good idea for a film and I'm highly skeptical of its worth. But I'll not prejudge it entirely just yet.

And Dolce, they are "Faces of Death", and they are mostly staged.

They've mocked suicide before in The Heathers, and everyone was entertained my that movies. Everything can be made into mockery under adept hands, it only depends on what they tie it to.



Well, that's the point of opening something up to discussion. Maybe, the purposes aren't so "obvious?" Maybe everyone assumes they are because no one talks about it? Now, getting this movie from the vantage point of the bridge probably isn't the smartest point of departture to trigger a discussion. This is true. Its dealing witht he surface only. But that is not to say that any movie on suicide is merely exploitive, or that it can't trigger some discussion within the health field.



This coming from someone who likes the idea of United 93? How is this hurtful to the families? Maybe they asked to do it as a catharic release or because they thought it would help inform and deter future such incidents? Maybe they want there loved ones to be memorialized on the big screen? Probably not all 25 families went ahead with it, but the ones that did had their reasons.



Oh. I never saw these. But people used to talk about them. Ugh.

Dolce, are you planning on seeing this?

Do you want me to? I still have mixed feelings about it, and if I do go I would try to do it next week, not this one. I really am not that enticed by the idea of watching a string of suicides, but if its really priority, I can try and check it out.

It's not a priority. But you know I'm the resident documentary whore around here. I just wanted to live vicariously through you.

One comment Dolce, the families could not have specifically asked for this to be done, because it states that he set the camera up and captured the suicides therefore he had to have gone to the families after the fact.

I just don't know I'm getting a bad feeling about it myself but we'll see, doesn't mean I won't check it out but I don't think as far as a film it can accomplish much.

And I'm not crazy about United 93 either. I just got tired of people calling everything a conspiracy. I'm sure it will be another entry into the "rah rah USA" genre and will accomplish nothing. Eagle asked me to review it though so I definately have to go.

Oh and I never saw Faces of Death either, I've just heard of them and know what they are. I wouldn't be caught dead watching that stuff (no pun intened). Just like I had issues with Hostel, I just don't like that type of film, entertaining or not. It just harkens memories of old snuff films which I would never be able to be even intrigued with.

This sounds really interesting. Let us know what you think when and if you do see it, Galia. I'm curious.