1. A documentary called The Bridge. It’s about the Golden Gate Bridge, and specifically about all the suicides that happen there. The documentary consists mostly of footage from cameras set up to record the bridge continually for a year. It sounds morbid and voyeuristic, but if you watch the trailer I don’t think it comes across that way. It sounds like a fascinating look at a part of human behaviour that I just can’t get my head around. [via The Movie Blog]
2. A polemic from Christopher Hume against the NIMBY Toronto masses who light their torches and form a mob every time a building over 20 stories is proposed, lest it create shade in their neighbourhood. [via Spacing]
3. A new word: depletist. Invented (apparently) by some students at the Ontario College of Art & Design, it’s definition is as follows: “1) An individual or group showing apparent, negligent, or reckless disregard for the environmental consequences of their actions. 2) An individual or group that exhausts non-renewable resources and rejects positive environmental strategies.” I like it. Very much. Well done, OCADets. [via Reading Toronto]
4. A cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” by Jose Gonzalez (well, by Junip, which is Jose’s new band). Check it out if you can.
[tags]bridge documentary, suicide, golden gate bridge, christopher hume, toronto architecture, depletist, reading toronto, ocad, jose gonzalez, junip, ghost of tom joad[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
The Bridge is playing here at the London Film Festival. I didn’t notice it before I booked our shows, but wouldn’t have chosen it anyway. Both Cannes and Berlin (and probably others) rejected it as irresponsible.
I agree with Dan that the Trailer is grabby but why do they say it is irresponsible?
They refused to show it because it’s been proven that showing the specifics of how to commit suicide will result in people copycatting that form of suicide.
There’s an argument, of course, that anyone intent on committing suicide is going to find some way of doing it. But the risk that they’ll be shown how to do it “properly” increases the risk that they’ll off themselves.
The director of this documentary claims that there’s already a significant problem with copycat suicides from the Golden Gate bridge. It’s the most “popular” places for suicides in the world.
I tend to agree with the director. It’s already an incredibly popular place for suicides, so copycatting is rampant.
I know it’s why the news doesn’t usually report suicides but I wonder if there’s a difference between describing the details and showing actual suicides. I wonder if someone on the verge would be more or less inclined to jump from a bridge if they just saw footage of someone doing it, as opposed to reading about it in a newspaper?
In today’s TV/DVD/YouTube/iPod world? I’m betting yes.
OK, let’s assume that’s true. I haven’t seen evidence either way, so I’ll go along with the notion that some people who see suicides or details of suicides will be prompted to themselves commit suicide. It sounds logical; many people are followers.
I’d argue, though, that there are a number of people on whom such video would have the opposite effect, who would back away from the edge of suicide when they saw the reality of it. That effect would be nearly impossible to quantify since there’s no demonstrable effect, so it wouldn’t resonate the same way an increase in suicides — which is easily measurable — would.
I suppose that, if this theory were true, you’d see an upward trend over time where more people committed suicide in less public ways, but I haven’t seen any evidence one way or the other.