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view archive Golden Gate Bridge officials are seething that a moviemaker who told them he was working on a "day in the life" project about the landmark was, i n fact, capturing people on film as they jumped to their deaths. Eric Steel initially told officials he planned to spend a year filming th e "powerful and spectacular interaction between the monument and nature" and that his work was to be the first in a series of documentaries abou t national monuments such as the St. Louis Arch and the Statue of Libert y That's how he got the Golden Gate National Recreation Area's permissi on to set up cameras on parkland overlooking Fort Point. Now, however, Steel has revealed in an e-mail to bridge officials that th e cameras -- which were operating almost continuously during daylight ho urs for all of 2004 -- filmed most of the 19 jumpers who went off the br idge last year plus a number of attempted suicides. Steel says his goal is to "allo w us to see into the most impenetrable corners of the human mind and cha llenge us to think and talk about suicide in profoundly different ways." Absolutely,'' said bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie . "A guy this duplicitous -- there must be a way to yank that stuff away fr om him,'' said Marin County Supervisor Hal Brown, a member of the bridge district's board. " "It's creepy," agreed San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, also a member of the district board. "Whatever the intention of the film, you can't h elp but think of a snuff film." Golden Gate National Recreation Area spokesman Rich Weideman, whose agenc y issued the permit for Steel to set up his cameras, said officials "wou ld likely have taken a second and stronger look'' if they'd known the fi lmmaker's true intent. Still, Weideman said, free-speech guidelines don't leave a lot of room fo r federal officials to question content. Bridge district officials, who had nothing to do with issuing the permit, already were suspicious before Steel broke the news. "He had all this sophisticated equipment, and it was all focused mid span , so it was pretty clear what he was really up to,'' said one bridge wor ker who visited the camera site and asked not to be named. Then last week came the e-mail from Steel telling bridge officials what t he movie was really about and asking permission to interview bridge work ers and brass about the suicides. "My crew and I spent an entire year looking very carefully at the Golden Gate Bridge, running cameras for almost every daylight minute,'' Steel w rote. "We observed and filmed most of the two dozen or so suicides and a great many of the unrealized attempts. "I'm not sure if you are aware of this,'' he added, "but on several occas ions during the year, my crew and I were the first callers to the bridge patrol offices when we saw these events begin to unfold." Steel also flew around the country logging nearly a hundred hours of inte rviews with jumpers' families, friends, witnesses, medical and psychiatr ic professionals and several attempted jumpers. "My intent is to make an independent, feature-length film that I can show at a major film festival," he added. "This could unfortunately add to people's interest to use the bridge as a final step," she said. "It seems the more you talk about this, the more there's a chance of copycat (suicides), and that would be extremely unf ortunate if that was the case with this movie." Both Murray and Ammiano said they favor taking another look at installing a suicide barrier. Steel declined Tuesday to talk about the film or his tactics, saying he w as in the middle of negotiations with bridge authorities for their coope ration. Suffice it to say that at this point, officials don't appear to be ready for their close-ups -- especially now that they feel that Steel misrepre sented what he was doing. Still, "we are a public facility," bridge spokeswoman Currie said. Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Monda ys and Wednesdays. They can also be heard on KGO Radio on Mondays, Wedne sdays and Thursdays. Phil Matier can be seen regularly on KRON 4 News, a nd also on Sunday night at 9:30 on his own show, "4 the Record."
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