The Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge, watched by fixed cameras through all of 2004. The documentary interviews families and friends of those who jumped, cut against footage shot at the bridge. Eric Steel directed. His crew recorded the bridge for a year and captured twenty-three of the twenty-four known suicides that year. The real controversy came out of the permit. Steel's application described his aim as capturing the powerful intersection of monument and nature that happens daily at the bridge; he did not tell bridge officials what he was filming. They objected openly once they found out. The crew did not only record. They spotted some attempts, called the authorities, and several people were stopped. Both sides of the argument have used that detail. The film revived the debate over installing a barrier on the structure with more suicides than any other in America; the decision to build one came years later. Who it is for: viewers who can handle ethically contested documentary and the subject itself. Who it is not for: anyone who does not want to see a suicide; the film shows them directly.