JOY OF LIFE

The Golden Gate Bridge is the No. 1 suicide landmark in the world. Since it opened in 1937, an estimated 1.300 people have ended their lives by jumping off this monumental structure. My friend Mark Finch, former director of the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, was one of them. Mark jumped Jan. 14, 1995. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and no one saw him go over. His briefcase was found leaning against the railing at mid-span. His body drifted in the tides of the Pacific for nearly six weeks before being found, seven miles out to sea, off the coast from Pillar Point Harbor, some 25 miles south of where he had jumped. There have been 25 bodies identified as Golden Gate Bridge suicides in the year 2003, approximately one every two weeks. (Jenni Olson)

Will be shown together with Bolero