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Sunday was the kind of day that makes San Francisco seem like the best city ever. The sun was shining, neighbors in our building delivered our Sunday paper straight to our door instead of stealing it, children laughed in the street, flowers bloomed and small birdies and woodland creatures helped us get dressed in the morning while we hummed a happy tune. Watching Tom Ammiano opinining for the television cameras while we waiting in line for The Bridge just seemed like another thing that made us feel good about this city. Nothing could shake the optimistic kick in our step we thought, not even a movie about suicide. Boy were we wrong.
During the entire year of 2004, Eric Steel and his crew trained two cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge during daylight hours and documented the 24 people who climbed over the rails and ended their lives. Watching the last moments of a person's life shook us to our core. Like watching the footage of people jumping from the World Trade Center, watching people jump off the bridge felt like an invasion of an intensely private moment of desperation.
By SFist MiHi Ahn, contributing
During the Q&A after the movie, most people thanked Steel for shining a light on mental illness but there were some critical questions that seemed to imply that he was exploiting the anguish of others. One person asked him if he added the sound of the bodies hitting the water. Another person asked what right he had interviewing families without telling them he had footage of their loved ones' last moments. There was some discussion about erecting a barrier on the bridge. The Bridge is a movie we kind of wish we'd never seen but at the same time, we couldn't look away.
While filming, Steel and his crew trained their cameras on people walking back and forth on the bridge alone, people crying, people making what could be their last cell phone calls. The most fascinating observation from Steel was that he and his crew, "had this concept that we'd be able to see some manifestations of that (desperation) on the outside" but in fact, none of the people who were crying jumped. Only one person jumped after making a cell phone call and two people who rode bicycles onto the bridge jumped. One of the most poignant observations by Steel was that in that critical moment between life and and death, the world continued blithely on. lt looked like most people didn't intervene while watching someone swing a leg over the rail, there were joggers who look backwards but continue jogging while someone starts to hoist himself over the edge. And, in fact, it isn't just strangers. The friends and family members also seemed at a loss, knowing this moment was perhaps inevitable, not knowing when or how to help.
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