In Fridays lesson we watched another documentary called 'The Bridge'; filmed in 2004 by Eric Steel. It shows the results of one years filming along the Golden Gate Bridge and the 23 jumps and several suicide attempts that happened over the course of the filming. It also has additional footage of interviews with the families of those who jumped and a survivor; Ken Baldwin. The inspiration for this documentary came from an article in The New Yorker; 'Jumper' - Tad Friend.
There are many controversial issues that are surround this documentary, the main being the sensitive and strong content. We thought of some questions in the lesson based more around the treatment of the documentary rather than the content of it.
Do we have the right to see this?
This, like 'The boy who's skin fell off', is a very sensitive issue. However, 'the boy who's skin fell off' promoted a related charity and helped to spread awareness of the condition; I feel 'The Bridge' didn't look at the issue in the same way. I think it was based more around suicides linked to the Golden Gate Bridge being a regular place that people commit suicide rather than spreading the awareness of the issue and promoting a way of helping such as a charity). Having said this I think the treatments made viewers aware that 'everyday people' are suicidal and helped to spread awareness that it can happen to anyone, I also think it helped to express the importance of not ignoring symptoms and therefore I believe it did promote some parts in a good way. Finally, I think it gave a strong message to people who are feeling suicidal. We hear Ken Baldwins story in the documentary and his attempt of suicide that he immediately regretted. I think this gives a positive message and a feeling of hope.
Why has the documentary got an 18 rating?
Film classification is based on violence, bad language, sex and nudity and taste and decency. This documentary has a high rating, this is due to its taste and decency. I personally found the documentary very hard to watch due to its harsh reality. In the documentary you watch a real life suicide and many reenactments along with verbal accounts and photo graphs from people who have seen people jumping off the bridge or climbing over the railing. This can clearly be disturbing for many viewers and therefore a high rating was needed so that an audience that was too young didn't view it as it's likely that they'd have found it harder to deal with.
