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fiba Documentary Features 2006

BRIDGE


Documentary by Eric Steel

Suicide Documentary Angers Golden Gate Bridge Officials

POSTED: 3:39 pm PST January 19, 2005
UPDATED: 7:30 pm PST January 19, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- The film project was proposed as a "monuments documentary" intended to "capture the grandeur" of the Golden Gate Bridge.But after a year, filmmaker Eric Steel ended up with footage of 19 deaths and several attempts by people who wanted to end their lives by jumping off what is regarded as the world's No. 1 suicide landmark. San Francisco Bay VideoVideo On Demand: John Fowler Reports Golden Gate Bridge Suicide film Bridge officials who approved the filming are now furious at Steel, saying he lied about his project. They are looking for ways to see the footage and possibly prevent him from showing it. "It's unprofessional to have misrepresented a project," said Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the agency that administers and maintains the famous bridge. She said if Steel lied about his project, he might also have lied about what he filmed. "It's an invasion of privacy. It's grim. It's a tragic thing," she said. "But if he wants to show someone jumping off the bridge, he's entitled to do that." Acantraz Reached Wednesday by email, Steel refused to comment, citing ongoing "discussions with the bridge district authority." The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which manages the piece of property where Steel set up a digital movie camera, issued him a $65 permit in December 2003, spokesman Rich Weideman said. ancisco Market Street San Francisco Market Street Quoting Steel's application, Weideman said the filmmaker wrote that his video was intended "to capture the powerful, spectacular intersection of monument and nature that takes place every day at the Golden Gate Bridge. ... It will be the first in a series. Future projects will focus on the arch in St. Louis and the Statue of Liberty in New York." Weideman said it's possible Steel began filming the project he proposed, then caught a suicide on tape and changed his plan. San Francisco houses/buildings "We kind of want to think of the good in the person rather than the grim background that's coming out of this," he said. "In light of the controversy, the recreation area is re-evaluating its permit policy", he said. The Golden Gate Bridge has served for decades as platform for suicide jumpers. An estimated 1,200 people have committed suicide there since it opened in May 1937. Steel revealed the true nature of his project after he completed filming and his permit expired on Dec. 31, Currie said. San Francisco Trolley "He's now come to our agency and asked to film our staff ... do interviews with our people," Currie said. Steel sent her an email after she asked for a written proposal. "I believe the film will allow us to see into the most impenetrable corners of the human mind and challenge us to think and talk about suicide in profoundly different ways. It is a movie about the human spirit in crisis. It is a movie about people," Steel wrote. Steel said he filmed nearly two dozen suicides and "a great many of the unrealized attempts." He also said he recorded nearly 100 hours of interviews with families and friends of the jumpers, witnesses who were walking, biking or driving across the bridge or surfing or boating beneath it, psychiatrists and "several of the attempters themselves." He said his intention is to make "an independent, feature-length film that I can show at a major film festival. Beyond that, I have no distribution plans -- only hopes." Currie said the bridge district is evaluating Steel's request to interview employees. Copyright 2006 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. T ______________________________________________________________ his material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Falling Man is a photograph taken by Richard Drew at 9:41:15 a.m., on September 11, 2001. It shows a man falling from the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City. The subject was one of the people (dubbed "jumpers" by the press) trapped on the upper floors of the building who apparently chose to jump to certain death rather than die from the heat and smoke. At first, the faller was identified by Globe and Mail reporter Peter Cheney as being a man by the name of Norberto Hernandez, but when the family

looked at the whole series of pictures (there were approximately a dozen images), it was clear that it was not him. "9/11: The Falling Man" became a documentary about the picture and the story behind it. It made its debut on March 16, 2006, on the British television station Channel 4 broadcast. It later made its North American premiere on Canada's CBC Newsworld on September 6, 2006. The programme suggests that the man in the photograph is Jonathan Briley, a sound engineer who worked at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the North Tower. The powerful and controversial photograph provoked feelings of anger, particularly in the United States, in the imme- diate aftermath of the Sep- tember 11 attacks. The photo ran only once in many Amer- ican newspapers because they received critical and angry letters from readers who felt the photo was exploitative, voyeuristic, and disrespectful of the dead. This led to the media's self-censorship of the photograph, preferring instead to print photos of acts of heroism and sacrifice. Drew commented about the varying reactions, saying, "This is how it affected people's lives at that time, and I think that is why it's an important picture. I didn't capture this person's death. I captured part of his life. This is what he decided to do, and I think I preserved that." The Falling Man ends suggesting that this picture was not a matter of the identity behind the man, but how he symbolized the events of 9/11. "I hope we're not trying to figure out who he is and more figure out who we are." —Jonathan Briley's elder sister, Gwendolyn, __________________________________________________ References * 9/11: The Falling Man (March 16, 2006). Channel 4. * Junod, Tom (September 2003). Falling Man". Esquire. * "Falling Man: the many faces of a 9/11 riddle" (March 05, 2006). Sunday Times (UK).

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