Audiences are haunted by a film that shows the suicide leaps of real people

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Personally I would be against someone making this kind of film, its sick, but what do you guys think? The Times October 21, 2006 The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, where Eric Steel

set up his cameras in 2004 and in the process recorded 23 of the 24 suicides there during the year (Corbis) Audiences are haunted by a film that shows the suicide leaps of real peopleBy Ben Hoyle and Jack Malvern A documentary set in San Francisco has produced shocking images A TALL black-coated figure with wild, billowing hair mounts the safety railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, looks around him, and tips slowly backwards towards the water

far below. Gene Sprague’s death would be a dramatic scene in any film. In a documentary it is as shocking as anything in cinema history. The Bridge, which is being screened at The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival on Monday, breaks one of the medium’s last taboos, by showing real deaths. Six of the twenty-four people who killed themselves at San Francisco’s most recognisable landmark, in 2004, are shown jumping. Brief portraits of their tragic lives, pieced together from interviews with family and friends, give the film shape and depth, but it is the footage of the jumpers that haunts audiences long after the credits have rolled. The director, Eric Steel, said yesterday that

he wanted to force his audience to “bear witness to something profoundly disturbing” and, through that, jolt them into re-evaluating their thoughts on suicide and mental illness. However, his film has provoked a storm of controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. It was rejected by several film festivals, including Cannes and Berlin, with one of the events’ organisers describing it as “voyeuristic, nothing more”. Suicide experts accused Steel of glamorising his subjects and cautioned that the film would trigger copycat deaths. Professor Keith Hawton, of the Centre for Suicide Research, at Oxford University, said that the film’s approach was ill-advised and tasteless. “All research suggests that showing, in detail, methods of suicide does result in an increase of those methods immediately afterwards, so portrayal of methods of suicide is ill-advised.” Mike Cobb, a Samaritans spokesman, said that footage showing suicide risked encouraging

vulnerable people to take their own lives. “Even showing a method on Casualty has led to an increase,” he said. Steel, 42, responded that, as the most popular suicide spot in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge “already has a copycat problem”. He said: “These people have serious issues, and the answer is not to not show the film. It is to find a way to deal with these people’s mental illnesses in a way that makes them feel they want to stay in this world.” He developed the idea after reading an article in The New Yorker about some of the 1,300 people who have thrown themselves from the Golden Gate Bridge since it opened in 1937. Trying to imagine their last moments, he thought of the bodies he had watched falling from the World Trade Centre towers on September 11, 2001. “I don’t think we can understand that level of despair,” he said. “Those people jumped rather than die in an inferno. These people might be jumping to escape their

own emotional infernos.” Steel got the bridge authorities to co-operate by pretending that he was filming a series on national monuments. Filming from dawn to dusk for the whole of 2004, the crew captured 23 of the 24 suicides that year. He said that he wanted to make a serious contribution to the debate on mental illness and could not have done it without showing the deaths (although he did not tell his interviewees this). “To me, the most disturbing footage is not the film of people jumping. It is watching the people who walk by, when someone is standing on the ledge, and do nothing.” Sandra Hebron, artistic director of the festival, said: “I am comfortable with the idea that there will be films in the festival that will divide opinion. I want people to talk about what they have seen. That’s what I want more than anything else.”Peter H

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I wouldn't watch it...I got enough of it on live TV during 9/11. At first I thought it was debris, but I was on the phone with a friend and she said no, it's people. I had just returned from a trip back east (first plane ride...I wouldn't have been on any of the planes if I were there one more day, just caught up in the panic on how to get home).

On 10/22/06, peter VV <swpgh01 wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally I would be against someone making this kind of film, its sick, but what do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Times

October 21, 2006

 

 

 

 

The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, where Eric Steel set up his cameras in 2004 and in the process recorded 23 of the 24 suicides there during the year (Corbis)

 

 

 

 

 

Audiences are haunted by a film that shows the suicide leaps of real peopleBy Ben Hoyle and Jack Malvern

A documentary set in San Francisco has produced shocking images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A TALL black-coated figure with wild, billowing hair mounts the safety railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, looks around him, and tips slowly backwards towards the water far below. Gene Sprague's death would be a dramatic scene in any film. In a documentary it is as shocking as anything in cinema history.

 

 

 

 

 

The Bridge, which is being screened at The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival on Monday, breaks one of the medium's last taboos, by showing real deaths. Six of the twenty-four people who killed themselves at San Francisco's most recognisable landmark, in 2004, are shown jumping. Brief portraits of their tragic lives, pieced together from interviews with family and friends, give the film shape and depth, but it is the footage of the jumpers that haunts audiences long after the credits have rolled. The director, Eric Steel, said yesterday that he wanted to force his audience to "bear witness to something profoundly disturbing" and, through that, jolt them into re-evaluating their thoughts on suicide and mental illness. However, his film has provoked a storm of controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. It was rejected by several film festivals, including Cannes and Berlin, with one of the events' organisers describing it as "voyeuristic, nothing more". Suicide experts accused Steel of glamorising his subjects and cautioned that the film would trigger copycat deaths. Professor Keith Hawton, of the Centre for Suicide Research, at Oxford University, said that the film's approach was ill-advised and tasteless. "All research suggests that showing, in detail, methods of suicide does result in an increase of those methods immediately afterwards, so portrayal of methods of suicide is ill-advised." Mike Cobb, a Samaritans spokesman, said that footage showing suicide risked encouraging vulnerable people to take their own lives. "Even showing a method on Casualty has led to an increase," he said. Steel, 42, responded that, as the most popular suicide spot in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge "already has a copycat problem". He said: "These people have serious issues, and the answer is not to not show the film. It is to find a way to deal with these people's mental illnesses in a way that makes them feel they want to stay in this world." He developed the idea after reading an article in The New Yorker about some of the 1,300 people who have thrown themselves from the Golden Gate Bridge since it opened in 1937. Trying to imagine their last moments, he thought of the bodies he had watched falling from the World Trade Centre towers on September 11, 2001. "I don't think we can understand that level of despair," he said. "Those people jumped rather than die in an inferno. These people might be jumping to escape their own emotional infernos." Steel got the bridge authorities to co-operate by pretending that he was filming a series on national monuments. Filming from dawn to dusk for the whole of 2004, the crew captured 23 of the 24 suicides that year. He said that he wanted to make a serious contribution to the debate on mental illness and could not have done it without showing the deaths (although he did not tell his interviewees this). "To me, the most disturbing footage is not the film of people jumping. It is watching the people who walk by, when someone is standing on the ledge, and do nothing." Sandra Hebron, artistic director of the festival, said: "I am comfortable with the idea that there will be films in the festival that will divide opinion. I want people to talk about what they have seen. That's what I want more than anything else."

 

Peter H

 

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I wonder what the difference is between movies that show suicide/death/murder and other miscellaneous violent actions versus a documentary of real people committing suicide. Is that just it - the reality of the documentary? Yet are we not seeing the same blood and guts in movies? Yeah okay I think I just answered my own question - it has to be that you *know* that any actress that falls off a cliff really isn't dead because you've seen her at the premier. But what about this - I certainly wouldn't want anyone witnessing much less PROFITING off my most vulnerable and low moment. CourtneyP.S. This post is pre-coffee so I'm sorry if I've made anyone mad!-Mikeygirl9915 Monday, October 23, 2006 2:40 amRe: Audiences are haunted by a film that shows the suicide leaps of real people > I wouldn't watch it...I got enough of it on live TV during 9/11. > At first I> thought it was debris, but I was on the phone with a friend and > she said no,> it's people. I had just returned from a trip back east (first > plane ride...I> wouldn't have been on any of the planes if I were there one more > day, just> caught up in the panic on how to get home).> > On 10/22/06, peter VV wrote:> >> > Personally I would be against someone making this kind of > film, its> > sick, but what do you guys think?> > The Times October 21, 2006> >> >> > The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, where Eric Steel set up > his cameras> > in 2004 and in the process recorded 23 of the 24 suicides > there during the> > year (Corbis)> > Audiences are haunted by a film that shows the suicide leaps > of real> > peopleBy Ben Hoyle and Jack Malvern> > A documentary set in San Francisco has produced shocking images> > A TALL black-coated figure with wild, billowing hair mounts > the safety> > railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, looks around him, and tips slowly> > backwards towards the water far below. Gene Sprague's death > would be a> > dramatic scene in any film. In a documentary it is as shocking > as anything> > in cinema history. *The Bridge*, which is being screened at > *The Times*BFI 50th London Film Festival on Monday, breaks one > of the medium's last> > taboos, by showing real deaths. Six of the twenty-four people > who killed> > themselves at San Francisco's most recognisable landmark, in > 2004, are shown> > jumping. Brief portraits of their tragic lives, pieced > together from> > interviews with family and friends, give the film shape and > depth, but it is> > the footage of the jumpers that haunts audiences long after > the credits have> > rolled. The director, Eric Steel, said yesterday that he > wanted to force> > his audience to "bear witness to something profoundly > disturbing" and,> > through that, jolt them into re-evaluating their thoughts on > suicide and> > mental illness. However, his film has provoked a storm of > controversy on> > both sides of the Atlantic. It was rejected by several film > festivals,> including Cannes and Berlin, with one of the events' > organisers describing> > it as "voyeuristic, nothing more". Suicide experts accused > Steel of> > glamorising his subjects and cautioned that the film would > trigger copycat> > deaths. Professor Keith Hawton, of the Centre for Suicide > Research, at> > Oxford University, said that the film's approach was ill-> advised and> > tasteless. "All research suggests that showing, in detail, > methods of> > suicide does result in an increase of those methods > immediately afterwards,> > so portrayal of methods of suicide is ill-advised." Mike Cobb, a> > Samaritans spokesman, said that footage showing suicide risked > encouraging> vulnerable people to take their own lives. "Even > showing a method on *> > Casualty* has led to an increase," he said. Steel, 42, > responded that, as> > the most popular suicide spot in the world, the Golden Gate > Bridge "already> > has a copycat problem". He said: "These people have serious > issues, and the> > answer is not to not show the film. It is to find a way to > deal with these> > people's mental illnesses in a way that makes them feel they > want to stay in> > this world." He developed the idea after reading an article in > *The New> > Yorker* about some of the 1,300 people who have thrown > themselves from the> > Golden Gate Bridge since it opened in 1937. Trying to imagine > their last> > moments, he thought of the bodies he had watched falling from > the World> > Trade Centre towers on September 11, 2001. "I don't think we can> > understand that level of despair," he said. "Those people > jumped rather than> > die in an inferno. These people might be jumping to escape > their own> > emotional infernos." Steel got the bridge authorities to co-> operate by> > pretending that he was filming a series on national monuments. > Filming from> > dawn to dusk for the whole of 2004, the crew captured 23 of > the 24 suicides> > that year. He said that he wanted to make a serious > contribution to the> > debate on mental illness and could not have done it without > showing the> > deaths (although he did not tell his interviewees this). "To > me, the most> > disturbing footage is not the film of people jumping. It is > watching the> > people who walk by, when someone is standing on the ledge, and > do nothing." Sandra> > Hebron, artistic director of the festival, said: "I am > comfortable with the> > idea that there will be films in the festival that will divide > opinion. I> > want people to talk about what they have seen. That's what I > want more than> > anything else."> >> >> > Peter H> >> > Send instant messages to your online friends > http://uk.messenger.>> >> > > >> > > > -- > Gymbo in Texas > > www.myspace.com/nascartaebogymmie> > FREE THE DOG, LELAND AND YOUNGBLOOD!>

[Guest guest]

people should be allowed to leave this earth

if they feel that they cannot find happiness here.

 

of course help should be offered, but some people have no

help. nobody cares.

 

it would be nice if there were quick painless ways to die

once this decision has been made by a person, however jumping off

a bridge is the last/first chance to fly.

poetic, on such a beautiful bridge.

 

one can only offer warmth, but some people just don't want to be here.

 

 

, peter VV <swpgh01 wrote:

>

> Personally I would be against someone making this kind of film, its

sick, but what do you guys think?

> The Times October 21, 2006

>

>

> The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, where Eric Steel set up his

cameras in 2004 and in the process recorded 23 of the 24 suicides

there during the year (Corbis)