Abstract
Piyal Sen is impressed by the power of film to advance the cause of suicide prevention
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is one of the world's greatest tourist destinations. It is also, however, one of the most popular suicide locations. More than 13 000 people have killed themselves by jumping from the bridge since it opened in 1937. Amazingly, despite such startling evidence, no suicide barrier has ever been erected. The reasons put forward have included concerns about engineering, effectiveness, cost, and aesthetics. This in the country that perhaps attributes the highest cost to human life and in one of its wealthiest and most liberal states, California.
The Bridge focuses on suicide as a public health issue. There are almost twice as many suicides in the United States as there are homicides, yet the public focus remains firmly on homicide and the “moral panic” surrounding it. A particularly worrying trend in all industrialised nations is the disproportionately high rate of suicide among young men. Preventive measures have included detoxifying town gas, packaging over the counter paracetamol in smaller quantities, curbing prescription of barbiturates, safer design of underground trains, tighter gun control laws, and restricted access to suicide hot spots. Along with a focus on high risk groups such as prisoners, the measures form part of a comprehensive public health suicide prevention strategy.
Director Eric Steel has a unique style of filming. He places two small digital video cameras at separate vantage points, one fixed at a wide angle to record the bridge and the water beneath it, and the other fitted with a powerful telephoto lens to film individual people as they walk across the bridge. These cameras recorded every daylight hour for an entire year, 2004, and the results were edited to make this 93 minute documentary. In total, 24 people committed suicide by jumping from the bridge that year, and all except one were captured on camera. Steel also met with the coroner of Marin County, where the bodies were taken, and he traced and talked to the families of the deceased, carrying out what he calls a “psychological autopsy,” and interviewed doctors and psychiatrists.
During filming, the crew kept to a protocol to raise the alarm and call the bridge police if they were suspicious that someone was about to jump. Six people were stopped this way, but it proved extremely difficult to predict any impending danger from the behaviour of the jumper.
The Bridge makes fascinating viewing, but could be difficult for the lay viewer to handle, especially as it has no definite narrative structure. It opens with a shot of people walking across the bridge. Suddenly, a man goes over the guardrail and jumps into the water. A US Coast Guard boat soon arrives and the search begins. The whole incident is shown through the eyes of an onlooker flying a kite. A female driver interviewed remarks, “It happens all the time.”
The Bridge has some poignant moments. For example, the experience of schizophrenia is described as “like watching TV with 44 channels on at the same time.” One parent tries to explain a son's suicide—“He thought his body was a prison, he felt trapped, and it was the only way he could be free.” Another parent said, “She was crying out for help.” The sole survivor describes his state of mind before and after the attempt—“I'm a loser. For most of us, the sun comes out, well, tomorrow is another day.” All these comments capture the anguish felt by someone out to destroy themselves and the distress felt by family members.
When the nature of the film was revealed, the Golden Gate Bridge District was again forced to confront the issue of erecting a suicide barrier. The authority reluctantly agreed to commission a feasibility study. Now, after the release of the film, it is reported that a barrier will be built after all.
So The Bridge has succeeded where years of lobbying by mental health professionals and families of victims to build a barrier had failed. Public bodies running anti-stigma campaigns, like the UK's Royal College of Psychiatrists, could learn a trick or two from this. I now eagerly look forward to a film on the state of the NHS, or on the implications of the new Mental Health Act. After all, reality television has the ability to change popular attitudes in the media-obsessed culture we live in today. The Bridge helped to restore my faith in the power of this culture.