Filmmaker and Producer, known for his work on "Shaft" and "Angela's Ashes"
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"The Bridge"
In 2005, documentarian Eric Steel revealed that he had tricked the Golden Gate Bridge committee into allowing him to film the bridge for months and had filmed people committing suicide by leaping off the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. ...
Steel had told the park officials that he planned to document the "powerful and spectacular interaction between monument and nature" and that the film was to be the first in a series of documentaries that would also include pieces on the St. Louis Archand the Statue of Liberty. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is located in St. ... Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island Liberty Enlightening the World, known more commonly as the Statue of Liberty, is a statue given to the United States by France in 1885, standing at Liberty Island in the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor as a welcome to all...
After his filming had ended, Steel revealed that his intent had been to document the suicides that occur routinely at the Golden Gate Bridge. He set up crews at both ends of the bridge, and with the cameras rolling almost continually during the daylight hours of 2004, Steel was able to capture 23 of the 24 known suicide attempts that year.
The film was edited and turned into a film called "The Bridge" which premiered at film festivals in New York and San Francisco. Outside the theaters, angry protesters displayed signs and hurled insults at Steel. "When I first got to the theater, there were people who were holding up protest signs" said Steel. "People made a lot of assumptions and came to a lot of conclusions without having seen the movie." Although the film shows 6 of the 23 captured suicides, The filmmakers insist that the movie is intended to "try to help people and to save lives by raising awareness"
EricSteel is a filmmaker and producer, most notable for his role in the production of Shaft, Angela's Ashes, and the controversial documentary The Bridge.
Steel's most controversial work and his first attempt at directing is the 2006 documentary The Bridge.
In obtaining permits to film the bridge for one year, EricSteel did not reveal to the Golden Gate Bridge committee that his goal was to film people committing suicide by leaping off the bridge.
Whenever possible, Steel and his crew would try to intervene to stop suicide attempts before they would happen, but still, over the course of the year, his cameras captured most of the 24 suicides that occurred.
Steel has included just a few of those deaths in the film, and they never cease to be jarring and difficult to watch.
In EricSteel's "The Bridge" it becomes a symbol of mankind's desire for ultimate control over our surroundings, something all but absent in the revealed lives of the film's protagonists, those who have jumped from it to their deaths.
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