The Joy of Life, a film by Jenni Olson
Since its January 2005 premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this innovative feature film has played a pivotal role in renewing debate about the need for a suicide barrier on The Golden Gate Bridge. The Joy of Life has taken home awards from both the New York and Los Angeles Lesbian & Gay Film Festivals as well as the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, and has been praised by critics and audiences across the globe for its unique style and dynamic vision.
The Joy of Life combines stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voiceover (performed by LA-based artist/actor Harriet “Harry” Dodge) to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide landmark, and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.
An impressionistic series of cityscapes serve as visual backdrop for this poetic reflection on love, loss and pining over straight girls. Grappling with gender identity issues and the occasional episode of depression, the film's lone protagonist (the voice of Harriet "Harry" Dodge, By Hook or By Crook) pinballs from sexual conquest to neurotic despair, manic romance to pathetic solitude. The voiceover balances melancholy angst and wry humor in its Casanova account of various urban, romantic, and sexual adventures — from the frisson of flirting to the heartache of rejection.
Her narrative of self-discovery resonates with her discovery of the city of San Francisco and leads into an in-depth documentary reflection on the history of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. This section explores the original bridge design (once described as “suicide-proof”), the phenomenon of suicide landmarks, and the decades-long debate over possible construction of a suicide barrier on this, the number one suicide landmark in the world.
The film ultimately takes a political position, presenting an argument in favor of such a barrier alongside a considerable amount of new information and primary research on the topic — at the time of the film's release the Bridge District Board of Directors were moved to take up the issue of a suicide barrier once again and considerable progress has been made toward a barrier in the intervening years.
Composed primarily of wide, static shots of the San Francisco landscape, the film is contemplative, sensual, cinematic and spacious. The visual strategy is simple: a series of urban landscape shots (empty alleys, weathered buildings, the lonely magnificence of the Golden Gate Bridge) mirrors the film’s voiceover. The relation between word and image is often oblique but they are always in collaboration.
A beautiful poetic interlude, written and performed by San Francisco’s legendary former Poet Laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reflects on “The Changing Light” of the city and conveys the film’s cinematic affection for the city’s many facets. The film’s opening music (“The Coastline Rag”) comes from another famous San Francisco figure, the late writer/artist/musician Weldon Kees, whose car was found on the Golden Gate Bridge in 1955. Presumed a suicide, Kees’s body was never found.
The Joy of Life is an unusual film — the visual style is far more challenging than most narrative features — but the subject matter, the rich texture of narrative elements, and the humor and sensitivity of its characters make the film accessible and entertaining to a broad audience. The Joy of Life is a pioneering film that brings narrative, documentary and experimental genres together to create a meditative piece about the City of San Francisco — touching simultaneously on traditional history and on contemporary butch lesbian identity.
The Joy of Life combines stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voiceover (performed by LA-based artist/actor Harriet “Harry” Dodge) to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide landmark, and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.
An impressionistic series of cityscapes serve as visual backdrop for this poetic reflection on love, loss and pining over straight girls. Grappling with gender identity issues and the occasional episode of depression, the film's lone protagonist (the voice of Harriet "Harry" Dodge, By Hook or By Crook) pinballs from sexual conquest to neurotic despair, manic romance to pathetic solitude. The voiceover balances melancholy angst and wry humor in its Casanova account of various urban, romantic, and sexual adventures — from the frisson of flirting to the heartache of rejection.
Her narrative of self-discovery resonates with her discovery of the city of San Francisco and leads into an in-depth documentary reflection on the history of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. This section explores the original bridge design (once described as “suicide-proof”), the phenomenon of suicide landmarks, and the decades-long debate over possible construction of a suicide barrier on this, the number one suicide landmark in the world.
The film ultimately takes a political position, presenting an argument in favor of such a barrier alongside a considerable amount of new information and primary research on the topic — at the time of the film's release the Bridge District Board of Directors were moved to take up the issue of a suicide barrier once again and considerable progress has been made toward a barrier in the intervening years.
Composed primarily of wide, static shots of the San Francisco landscape, the film is contemplative, sensual, cinematic and spacious. The visual strategy is simple: a series of urban landscape shots (empty alleys, weathered buildings, the lonely magnificence of the Golden Gate Bridge) mirrors the film’s voiceover. The relation between word and image is often oblique but they are always in collaboration.
A beautiful poetic interlude, written and performed by San Francisco’s legendary former Poet Laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reflects on “The Changing Light” of the city and conveys the film’s cinematic affection for the city’s many facets. The film’s opening music (“The Coastline Rag”) comes from another famous San Francisco figure, the late writer/artist/musician Weldon Kees, whose car was found on the Golden Gate Bridge in 1955. Presumed a suicide, Kees’s body was never found.
The Joy of Life is an unusual film — the visual style is far more challenging than most narrative features — but the subject matter, the rich texture of narrative elements, and the humor and sensitivity of its characters make the film accessible and entertaining to a broad audience. The Joy of Life is a pioneering film that brings narrative, documentary and experimental genres together to create a meditative piece about the City of San Francisco — touching simultaneously on traditional history and on contemporary butch lesbian identity.
